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The 2014 RichardArmitageNet calendar is now available to download and print. This calendar is for personal use only. Please do not upload anywhere else.

30th December

1. This interview with Richard and Luke took place when they were in Madrid. There are some interesting comments about their interactions with fans and a funny comment about dealing with the fish in Laketown. Thanks to Nina.

3. An interview with Richard that took place while he was in Berlin recently has been published in the German magazine Bravo. Thanks to Isy and Nancy for the scan on tumblr and the English translation. I think almost all of the questions are unique so we've got some new answers from Richard, which means this is definitely an interview worth reading.

4. New poll on the left-hand side asking for your rating of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. If you haven't seen the film yet and are intending to do so, please don't vote 'Haven't seen it' yet, but vote in the poll after your viewing. Previous poll results are here.

29th December

1. RTL have posted an interview with Richard from a recent Desolation of Smaug press junket. Watch here on RTL or here on YouTube.

2. This Hungarian interview with the Hobbit cast at the LA press junket shows some behind the scenes footage and features Richard at 5m 2s. Thanks to RACentral for the link. Richard says Merry Christmas at the end in Hungarian.

28th December

1. Thank you very much to Leslie Hassler for kind permission to post her photographs in my gallery. This photoshoot took place in New York in October 2013, some of which appeared in the December 2013 issue of NY Moves magazine and others are here on the Getty images site. Click 'original image' to see the full size. The photographs in my gallery are from her Facebook page and here is a link to Leslie's website. For older news about this photoshoot, see news 16 November and 28 November below.

2. The Sydney Morning Herald published a short interview with Richard on 23rd December about the progression of his career, including an interesting comment that North and South introduced him to Peter Jackson.

3. Time magazine published an on-set visit report earlier this month, that gave an insight into the filming of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, with brief quotes from many of the cast including Richard. Many thanks to Squid for these scans (click to enlarge):

4. A Sky Movies Hobbit special including Richard (from 51 seconds) is on YouTube. Thanks to Elaine for the email. Screencaps from this video are in the DoS Promo gallery, starting with this picture. Click 'original image' to see the full size.

27th December

1. Thanks to Heather for sharing some fantastic photographs of Richard at the LA premiere on 2nd December and from the Book of New Zealand event held on 30 November 2013. Follow the links below and click 'original image' when viewing each picture to see the excellent quality and XL size.

2. More photos from the Waterstone's Q&A event held on 6th December 2012 with thanks to Shane Lu are in the Waterstone's Candids gallery (image numbers 10-18). For more of her photos and to read her account of the evening, visit her Facebook page. Thanks for sharing Shane Lu!

22nd December

Candid pictures have been put on the site with many thanks to prwelly, CrystalChandlyre, Grace, Andrea, Gundi, Guylty, Lucky, Karina and Pilar:

2. Thanks to @Alicia5908 on twitter for sending me this article about Richard in the french magazine Carrefour Savoirs (click the image below to enlarge). Here is an English translation.

3. MTV's Josh Horowitz interviewed Richard in which he believes Peter Jackson will not be able to resist making a film version of The Silmarillion. He also talks about Thorin's dragon sickness and invents a new word. Some spoilers about the third film. This video is not able to view in the UK so RACentral have kindly uploaded it to YouTube.

4. MTV UK interview Luke Evans and Richard Armitage. Richard talks about the most gruelling scenes to film and how Peter Jackson brings new ideas to the studio every day. He also talks about stinky fish, barrels and the splendour of Smaug.

5. Photographer Sarah Dunn has been posting pictures of the Hobbit cast on her Facebook page and has been releasing more pictures as her page gets more 'likes'. Click the link to see the latest pictures of Richard, including this one posted today.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Annette for her constant kindness towards me, her positive encouragement and for her emails - I wish you well Annette and thank you.

Thanks also for the 100s of emails I've received in the last few days. As you've probably noticed I'm not on the ball with news lately but I do intend to post updates to the site on a gradual basis. I'm currently writing a thesis for academic work and have a January deadline, it's going to be a busy Christmas holidays! Thanks for your patience. Ali xx

2. Richard's agent has forwarded new information regarding contacting Richard for a signed picture. The address in London remains the same and is the ONLY address to contact Richard. Note the new envelope size and you must enclose payment in order to receive a reply. For the latest information see the FAQ page.

3. ClickOnline published their full interview with Richard on 13 December, some of which has been seen before (remember the cats v dogs comment). The press embargo is lifted, hence they have published Richard's answers to their Hobbit questions, and Richard also states an interest in the remake of 'Metropolis'. Read the interview here.

3. EAsylum interview on YouTube: the Armitage Army (some get a mention), cocktails and Thorin.

4. Joshua Horowitz from MTV tweeted this hilarious picture of himself and Richard as part of his happy/sad/confused picture series. Have a look through Joshua's timeline for similar pictures with Evangeline Lilly, Bradley Cooper, etc, it's worth a look!

14th December

1. The entire livestream from the 9 December 2013 Berlin premiere is here (with adverts). Thanks to Gundi for the link.

Richard announces the Regal Superticket offer (presumably this is just an offer for US residents?)

Canal+ 'Rencontres de cinema' 23 minute featurette with lots of clips from the film and new behind-the-scenes footage. Although this is obviously in French, it is dubbed so you can make out some of the English speech if you listen carefully. Richard talks about the barrel scene at 17m 39s. Thanks to @RArmitageFrance.

*New* ThisisFakeDIY interview with Richard from a UK press junket. Richard talks about reception to the film, the differences in Thorin in the second film, filming a pivotal scene at the mountain, filming the barrel scene, working with Benedict Cumberbatch and what Richard thinks is the best piece of Hobbit merchandise.

3. ClickOnline's article here focuses on Thorin and Thranduil with just a few quotes from Richard (not all specifically about Thranduil).

2. Jude Fisher author of The Visual Companion and host of last night's Waterstone's event has posted several pictures of Richard and Luke on her Facebook page. She tells me via twitter that a full interview with Richard and Luke will follow soon.

3. The New Zealand Herald's article 'The Hobbit's clash of the kings' features interviews with Richard and Lee Pace who plays Thranduil. Lots of comments about the beauty of NZ and wanting to retire there.

4. Another video from the LA press junket from TVsTalking Pictures: Richard talks about Thorin's character arc, the effect of his grandfather's legacy on Thorin, how Bilbo helps Thorin to understand himself, whether Richard is interested in producing or directing and using his knowledge of Shakespeare to play Thorin.

5. Squid has sent the photos below showing Thorin currently displayed in Orange County (click to enlarge). Also here is the poster that won the fan favourite competition in France, thanks to @faysaez33 for the tweet.

6. The Leicester Mercury have reported that Richard has donated some signed fan artwork for a charity auction raising money for the Loros hospice.

8. Livestream from the Berlin premiere on Monday starts at 6.20pm (GMT+1)and will be shown on kinofans.com. I've also been told that this site will be able to show the livestream - watch for a link above Richard's picture on the home page.

Screenslam: the height of a dwarf, Thorin is like a Bison, Thorin's relationship with Bilbo, Thorin's journey in the film, the effect of working with Peter Jackson, his most enjoyable scene in the film, re-reading the Hobbit book, working in NZ.

Rotten Tomatoes: the barrel scene, Peter Jackson's glee during the barrel scene, dreaming in character, wanting to ski dressed as Thorin, inheriting burdens from our parents and wanting to make them proud (mostly speaking about Thorin rather than himself).

Scoop.co.nz: the importance of The Hobbit to NZ, Thorin character analysis including his mistrust and how Thorin judges his own decisions, the physical challenges of filming The Hobbit, the life-changing experience.

Yahoo Movies: this is SO funny! Hobbit cast 'guess the feet'. Thanks to Candice.

4. MoviesComingSoon have posted a video some of which we've seen before, but it contains new clips where Richard is talking about The Desolation of Smaug. It looks like these clips were taken in 2011 and/or 2012 and will form part of the DVD extended features. Thanks to TEHI.

6. Richard and Luke Evans were in Waterstone's Piccadilly in London this evening and if you visit @WaterstonesPicc you will be able to read some of Richard's answers to questions and see some pictures. I'll put these in the gallery soon. This picture was tweeted by @ColouredSkies who has given me permission to post in the gallery - which I'm compiling now.

7. The latest clips from The Desolation of Smaug are all on YouTube here.

5th December

1. Peter Jackson has posted another video blog on his Facebook page. Richard appears very quickly twice between 0.08s and 0.10s, 2.14 and 6.52. Thanks Nino!

accesshollywood video 2: a longer video in which RA speaks about Gandalf and Thorin's first meeting, Thorin's relationship with Bilbo, extra scenes written for the films, working with Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom and Benedict Cumberbatch and he talks about watching the Lord of the Rings for the first time.

TODAYonline (Singapore newspaper): filming the barrels scene, working with Benedict Cumberbatch, does he miss the beard and what he'd like for Christmas.

3. Richard and Luke Evans will participate in a Twitter Q&A tomorrow, Friday 6th, as announced by @HobbitMoviesUK. Send in questions to Richard using the hashtag #ASKTHORIN. Richard's Q&A will start at 3.55pm (GMT), click the link for more information.

4. An interview with Richard has appeared in an Austrian cinema magazine SKIP - click here to read. An English translation is coming soon. Thanks to @lucky240601 on twitter.

5. Luke Evans and Richard travelled to the UK today. Luke posted this picture of the two of them (click to enlarge) before travelling and then announced they had landed safely (nice to know as we are currently experiencing terrible weather in the UK).

6. Richard will appear on ITV's Daybreak (UK) tomorrow morning at 8.25am. I will record this and upload it to YouTube later. Thanks to Annette and Lucy.

2. David Weiner of Entertainment Tonight has interviewed the Hobbit cast and said on twitter that his interviews will air on the channel on Thursday and Friday. Here he is with Richard in Beorn's chair on the set of 'The Book of New Zealand' in the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Another picture of the interview here and another here.

3. Watch a clip of a showdown between Thorin Oakenshield and Bard the Bowman in Laketown from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (HD) on YouTube.

5. The Hobbit UK have 3 pairs of tickets to give away for Friday evening's sold out event at Waterstones Piccadilly in London which Richard will attend. Visit the Hobbit UK's facebook page to find out more.

3rd December

1. Warner Bros. Pictures have posted the entire livestream on YouTube of last night's premiere black carpet event (the video lasts around 1 hour 20 minutes) including an interview with Richard which is at 50 minutes.

4. A journalist (@GeekInc18) for Total Film Indonesia tweeted me (@RAnetdotcom) and RACentral today with news of her article about Richard. She pushed for a 3 page spread about Richard and that has appeared in the magazine - new pictures! She then posted an English translation on her personal blog and gave me permission to post the image below - click to enlarge. Note the caveats under the pictures and at the bottom of the blog article: this interview came from a roundtable press junket interview in New York, 2012, which is why it is almost the same as the interviews posted in Cinema Fanpage magazine (news 23rd November) and MaxMovie magazine (news 30th November).

Are you attending this event or any other premiere, and would be willing to share your photographs on this site? I can watermark them or crop them, whatever you wish and put them in my Candids gallery, with many thanks and credit of course. Please email me, Ali at
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if you are interested. Thank you.

2. After receiving several enquiries about fanmail recently, particularly because Richard has relocated to the US for the time being, I contacted United Agents in London today asking for clarification. This is the official line on fanmail, so this information has not changed:

All fan mail, autograph and charitable requests should be sent to Richard Armitage care of our postal address (United Agents, 12-26 Lexington Street, London, W1F 0LE) . All autograph requests should including a stamped, self-addressed envelope for any reply. Only envelopes with the correct postage attached can be returned. Please do not sent money, cheques or vouchers.

We do take utmost care with client mail but cannot guarantee a reply, chase replies or accept responsibility for any items/gifts sent.

3. Ilaria Urbinati has styled Richard Armitage again for the Hobbit premiere events. Her latest tweet shows a new picture of Richard with a description of the clothes. This picture is now in the Book of NZ gallery (image #9).

5. Video from The Book of New Zealand has been posted on YouTube. Richard appears at 1:58 and 2:55. Video link changed to better quality version.

6. Richard and other Hobbit cast members were interviewed for Viva magazine Nov 26th, part of the Argentinian newspaper Clarin. Thanks to Lillianschild for the scans below and this English translation.

1st December

1. Tourism New Zealand's special installation 'The Book of New Zealand' opened at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California and was attended by stars of The Hobbit. Representatives from TheOneRing.net, Middle-earth News and also our lovely Heather who has shared many pictures with us in the past (and a report) were there to take pictures and video. In attendance were Richard Armitage, Luke Evans, Peter Jackson, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Evangeline Lilly and Martin Freeman. Heather confirmed that each cast member was asked a question - she has video and will hopefully post soon.

The special installation will be open to the public on 4th December for just five days and contains four film sets from The Desolation of Smaug that visitors can wander through to see sets and props up close.

2. New interview with Richard and Luke Evans in Nautilus magazine (Germany), posted on thorinoakenshield.net. Richard is asked about future projects but only mentions Into the Storm.

3. The January 2014 issue of SFX Magazine has a multi-page spread of interviews with cast about The Desolation of Smaug. The page with Richard is below (click to enlarge) with many thanks to Sweet-orange-sam who has posted the entire article on tumblr.

4. The new promo pictures from The Desolation of Smaug mentioned in the news 28th November below have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery. Pictures 149-156 are new. Click 'original image' to see the full size.

5. Air New Zealand have revealed a new design for one of their Boeing 777-300 aircraft, a 54 metre long Smaug! They have posted several pictures on twitter: number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4.

30th November

1. Sad news that AudioGo Ltd have gone into administration. They were the ONLY seller of the fantastic Lords of the North audiobook and although copies do appear on eBay occasionally, they will probably be second-hand copies. According to this news Audible.co.uk have bought the rights to many of AudioGo's titles - let's hope they had the sense to buy Lords of the North!

2. A scan of the MaxMovie December 2013 interview, mentioned in the news 26th November below, has been sent to me from Veloce, together with an English translation. This interview is very similar to the Cinema Fanpage (Italian magazine) posted in the news on 23rd November - press junket perhaps or the magazines are sharing interviews. Click the image below to enlarge. Thank you very much Veloce!

3. A donation of £251.87 has been made to the British Red Cross Typhoon Haiyan Appeal today from referral fees paid to this site from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Amazon.de. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page of this site to earn referral fees for charity. Further details of how referral fees are accured are here.

28th November

1. New photos from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug have been released: Digital Spy, Empire and Sky (thanks to TheOneRing.net for the links).

2. Richard will be attending an event at Waterstone's book shop in Piccadilly, London on Friday 6th December, however the event sold out within a couple of hours of being announced this morning. There were only 100 tickets, but a few lucky fans have already tweeted that they will be attending - have fun ladies!

3. The photographer Leslie Hassler who took the photos that appeared in NY Moves magazine has posted images from the magazine spread on her Facebook page. Click to enlarge and read. This article first appeared in the news 16 November below.

1. Klatsch-Tratsch has announced that Richard Armitage will be attending the European premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on 9th December 2013 in Berlin, along with Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch!

2. Some new pictures of Richard have been posted in the Korean MaxMovie magazine, December 2013 issue. Scans have been posted on tumblr as follows:

If anyone has a copy and is able to translate into English, please email me and I will share on this site. Thank you.

25th November

The second part of Greendragon's interview with Richard has been posted on TheOneRing.net. It sounds like the cast will probably be heading back to New Zealand again next year for more pick-ups!

24th November

1. North and South in Italy: a reminder that the LaEffe channel will show North and South for the first time on Italian television tonight at 22:00h. Click the link to see when the episode is repeated.

2. North and South in Austria and Germany:Servus TV are showing the four episodes of North and South again starting on Friday 29 November at 12:50h. Thanks to Michaela.

23rd November

1. Greendragon of TheOneRing.net has interviewed Richard before in Toronto and in London, but she got another chance last week and part 1 of her interview is here. We are still waiting for more of this interview to be released.

2. Another interview clip with Andrew Lincoln and Richard aired after Strike Back: Origins aired on Cinemax last night. Thanks RACentral: watch the clip on YouTube.

3. An Italian online film site, Cinema Fanpage, has interviewed Richard about The Desolation of Smaug and Christina and Lucia have kindly provided an English translation here. Richard states that his working relationship with Peter Jackson developed this year during pick ups:

"I think the trust between us grew stronger. There has always been trust, but I think it is more evident when you shoot with someone a second time. He worked even more meticulously. We found shortcuts to many things because I was able to perfectly understand what he wanted without him needing to say it."

1. Warner Bros. UK Trailers have posted several videos from the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on YouTube. There are of course lots more featurettes on the Extended DVD or Bluray. Please use the Amazon links on the home page if you wish to buy it via Amazon, as this will earn commission which I will pay to one of Richard's four charities.

2. I have had a request to donate one or more of the latest Amazon payments to a charity supporting the recent Philippines typhoon disaster, which I think is an excellent idea - I thought the British Red Cross. Please leave a comment on the home page if you have an opinion about this, it's your generous use of the links on my site that will fund this and payments to other charities.

3. The poster of Thorin was chosen overwhelmingly as the winner of Warner Bros. France's competition and will feature in the poster campaign around the streets of Paris. If you see any posters around, I'd love to see some pictures and will post them here - please email me. Read more from Allocine. Thanks to Nadia.

4. Richard will be attending the world premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with many other cast members on Monday 2nd December, as confirmed by Middle Earth News.

16th November

The photo agency Getty Images have posted some new pictures of Richard taken by photographer Leslie Hassler in New York on 4th October 2013. Several pictures from this photoshoot have appeared in the online interview by NY Moves magazine (click the image arrow top right to see more pictures and scroll down to read the interview - it's a bit different!).

There are details in the news below (4th October) regarding @NYMoves tweets about interviewing Richard. The image of Richard behind the scenes in this photoshoot was posted on twitter and subsequently in my gallery, but the interviewer decide to protect her account so the image is no longer available, or on this site.

The changes to my gallery are mentioned in my reply to lillianschild on 15th November in the home page comments on this site. Please read for more info and also the link to RAFrenzy's blog which explains the issue much more eloquently than I can. Although I cannot reply to all emails right now, comments left on this site are quick and easy to reply to and ensure that similar enquiries are answered simultaneously. Thank you for your support, I really do appreciate it.

It was announced today that Richard Armitage and Luke Evans, who plays Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will attend the Madrid premiere of the film on 11 December 2013. They will also attend an award ceremony on 12 December in the city. More information (in Spanish) here. Watch the event online from 1900h that day on Los40.com.

Esquire UK December 2013 issue (note: choice of two covers featuring either Joachim Phoenix or Scarlett Johansson): http://www.newsstand.co.uk/ email
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with queries.

Empire December 2013 with Thorin on the cover (digital version): via the Zinio app or Google Play store.

If there are other retail outlets selling these magazines online, please leave a comment on the home page and I will add to this list.

2. As mentioned in yesterday's news there is a new Hobbit scrolling banner. I've added this to the Hobbit Stills gallery, with thanks to Bccmee. Click 'original image' to see the full size - it's worth seeing! Also the next picture in the gallery is a close up of Thorin from this banner.

3. The latest issue of the French magazine L'Ecran Fantastique has an article about Into the Storm with a picture of Richard (seen before - see the Into the Storm gallery).

Click the thumbnail below. Thank you to Joane.

English translation by me (apologies for any errors):

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

A tornados found footage version.

Produced by New Line and Warner, the thriller Black Sky from Steven Quale, a mockumentary of high-school pupils caught in a trap of a terrible hurricane has just had a title change, having been launched under the name Category 6 then Tornado, it is now (definitely?) called Into the Storm. It will be released on August 8, 2014 in the USA. Richard Armitage portrays a widowed father trying to save his son following a series of tornadoes in the space of a single day, ravaging the city of Silverton. The entire city is at the mercy of the deadly cyclones, so that even stormhunters foretell that the worst is yet to come ... told through the eyes of the thrill seekers and courageous townspeople, the film is supposed to jump straight into the eye of the storm.

4. Exclusive content via Denny's from Warner Bros - Beorn's House on YouTube - featuring clips of all the dwarves and the actor who plays Beorn, Mikael Persbrandt. Spoilers about the character of Beorn and shots of the set. Some of these clips were previously seen in Peter Jackson's video production diaries.

5. Another interview clip with Richard Armitage and Andrew Lincoln shown on US TV after Strike Back: Origins was shown on Friday night. Thanks to RACentral for uploading to YouTube.

9th November

A scrolling banner for The Desolation of Smaug has been posted on the Entertainment Weekly site. I will add this to the gallery soon. EW posted a similar banner for An Unexpected Journey on 9th July 2012. Here is the 2012 news archive: scroll down to the 9th July to see it.

7th November

1. Esquire UK's December 2013 issue features several photos of Richard looking very Bond-esque and a short interview in which he says he's looking for a part in US television: "They ask you to commit to six years on a US show, though. I would have to be fascinated by the subject matter and really want to play a part for all that time."

UPDATE Clarification on copyright: I have been informed that posting images on this site from scans of the magazine article is acceptable. Posting photographer's images from photoshoots is not acceptable unless the pictures have been donated to the site from the copyright owner.

2. Two sets of new Hobbit posters appeared on the 'net last night, some really fantastic artwork in this bunch:

six new posters for the French release of The Desolation of Smaug on 11 December 2013 - click here for a larger Thorin picture

1. After the Hobbit fan event, Warner Bros presented a 3 minute 'sneak peak' of new footage from The Desolation of Smaug, which is currently showing at the start of the live-streaming on the home page. You can also watch it here on YouTube.

2. Here are two videos showing Richard Armitage and Orlando Bloom interviewed by journalists after the Hobbit fan event last night: video 1 and video 2. And here are several pictures of the pair on the JustJared site.

1. I'm pleased to announce that you can watch the live-streaming Hobbit fan event from this website tonight at 10pm (UK), 2pm (US PT), 5pm (US ET). The live-streaming window is on the home page. Note there is a link underneath to watch in a bigger window if you prefer.

2. Another new poster sponsored by the American Library Association and spotted by Obscura in her local public library. Thanks to Servetus for passing this on.

1. Warner Bros UK have just posted a new video on YouTube, in which Richard announces that tickets for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug are now available (this is true for the UK but not all countries). I can verify this as I've just bought mine! Click here to find tickets at your preferred cinema.

2. Richard was mistaken for the US politician on a Korean news site today - this would not normally qualify for inclusion on this news page, but it's so funny I had to mention it. Thank you to @sekert1 for tweeting this to me and attaching the photo as proof. Gone are the days when references to the politican would appear whenever you google RA's name.

1. Fmovie magazine (Singapore) spoke to Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom and Lee Pace in New York earlier this year and their November 2013 issue has plenty of pages covering those interviews, with pictures and a report from the NY press event. Click the thumbnails below to read all the pages that contain quotes from Richard. As with Empire magazine yesterday, I've added the pictures to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

2. New poster showing Thorin, Fili and Kili added to the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click 'original image' to see full size.

31st October

1. Empire magazine's December 2013 issue contains a set report from New Zealand, an interview with Richard and a few new photographs. I've scanned in all parts of the interview that contain Richard including quotes from him in the article - click the thumbnails below to enlarge. Pictures from the magazine have been scanned in and are at the end of the Hobbit Stills gallery. There are now 137 images in this gallery - press F5 if you cannot see all the images, and click on 'original image' to see the full size of an image in the gallery.

Empire have produced a nifty little video on instagram to advertise the four different covers for their December 2013 issue and also a different video on youtube.

1. The Italian movie magazine Best Movie has a multi-page article on The Desolation of Smaug including a short interview with Richard. See the full article here on flickr. The interview scan with Richard is below - click to enlarge - and click here for an English translation. With thanks to Cristina.

2. Empire magazine have four limited edition covers to choose from including a glorious cover featuring Thorin Oakenshield. All four covers will be available in UK shops this Thursday. I will post scans when I get my copy. Still waiting for information on how to order the Thorin issue online - I will post details here if I discover how to order it. This cover now added to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

4. George Gently in Germany: Richard will appear in the first episode of George Gently on the ZDF channel on 31st October at 00:45. Programme information here. Thanks to Claudia.

27th October

1. Another interview clip with Richard Armitage and Strike Back director Dan Percival was shown on Cinemax on Friday night, also including co-star Andrew Lincoln. Thanks to RACentral for posting the clip. See news below on 19th October for the first clip.

2. More reviews of Strike Back: Origins have been posted in the last couple of days (previous links found in the news below on 25th October): Zap2It, Screenrant and CraveOnline.

3. There's a fantastic Desolation of Smaug poster featuring Thorin and Bilbo on several poster sites - see GBPosters here or shop around for other deals. Thanks to Ingrid.

26th October

1. TheOneRing.net are giving away several hundred tickets to one of four venues for the exclusive Hobbit live fan event announced yesterday. You can enter the competition to try to win a pair of tickets to the event in Wellington, Los Angeles, New York (where Richard will be) or Toronto (note - no cast members announced for that venue). See yesterday's news for more details of the event.

2. Ingrid has now provided us with higher resolution images from the German Desolation of Smaug calendar. There are eight new images starting with this one and she has also sent an image of a new bookmark featuring Thorin Oakenshield. Click 'original image' to see the full size of these images. Thanks Ingrid!

25th October

1. As you will see in the news 23rd October below, iTunes have released the extended edition of The Hobbit very early in comparison with the worldwide release of the DVD and Bluray disc. Many of you will be aware that pictures and extracts of the extra features are appearing all over twitter, facebook, tumblr etc and perhaps like me, you are also trying to avoid spoilers. I am very much looking forward to watching the extra footage in the film and the extra features when my Bluray arrives and so I will not be posting links to pictures, gifs or reviews of any part of the Extended Edition on this website until it is released in the UK (11th November, according to Amazon). To that end, I must please ask you not to email me with pictures, gifs or links as I am trying not to look. Thank you.

2. North and South in Italy: the LaEffe channel will show North and South for the first time on Italian television starting 24th November at 22:00. Thank you for all the emails and tweets about this.

3. Richard will appear as John Porter in Strike Back: Origins tonight on Cinemax at 22:00 in the US. See news 19th October below for a clip of Richard talking about playing Porter. There have been a couple of great reviews of the series and Richard's performance, to coincide with Cinemax's showing tonight: HitFix, Hotextract and RedEyeChicago. I'm ignoring the less complimentary review from the NY Times - you can find that one if you wish!

4. Peter Jackson has announced an exciting live event which will take place on Monday 4th November at 2.00PT/5.00ET (US) which is 10.00pm in the UK. For full details released so far about the event click here.

1. New pictures from the Official The Desolation of Smaugcalendar from Germany have been sent to me from Ingrid and also she has sent images of a Desolation of Smaug board game, all of which contain brand new pictures of the dwarves, and of course Thorin Oakenshield. The new pictures are all on page 5 of the Hobbit Stills gallery (press F5 if you cannot see 24 images on this page) and when you click on a picture, make sure you choose 'original image' to see the full size. Many thanks again to Ingrid for sharing these images. Higher quality versions of the calendar pictures will be posted very soon.

2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey extended edition is now available on iTunes. I checked a few different regional stores and it appears to be available in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, but not in France or Netherlands so perhaps it hasn't yet reached Europe apart from the UK. Obviously I didn't check all countries so please check yours for availability.

3. Just added a new picture of Thorin to the Hobbit Stills gallery, showing the moment he finds the sword Orcrist in the Trolls' cave from An Unexpected Journey.

22nd October

1. Total Film have posted a clip on youtube from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey extended DVD extras, showing Graham McTavish and Richard Armitage practising their stunt moves. Thanks to Danielle. Sorry this clip has been removed, but it's now here (though maybe not for long!)

2. The New Zealand post office have again released Hobbit related stamps as they did last year, to coincide with the release of the film this December. Click here for the starter page, and then view other sets by clicking one of the links under 'Jump to type of product', for example, this is the self-adhesive booklet. Thanks to Liz.

3. Dark Horizons have released their second Hobbit set report which took place in July 2012. There are several quotes from Richard, some of which we've read previously including the same reference to the barrels that appeared in the HitFix interview (news on 17th October below), but this report from Dark Horizon is lengthy and there is plenty of new information relating to the second film. There are no new pictures, but there are details about action sequences in case you want to avoid spoilers.

19th October

An interview with Richard and Strike Back director Daniel Percival about the first series, that Cinemax are renaming Strike Back Origins, is now on the Cinemax website. The series will air in the US on Friday 25th October at 10.00pm. The interview took place in London on 2nd October according to Sean McNulty, Cinemax Executive Producer, who tweeted about it here.

I'll post screencaps from this interview soon. The interview is also here on youtube.

17th October

Richard describes some of the challenges the actors faced when filming the barrel scene in The Desolation of Smaug, in a new interview published by HitFix. I suspect this interview took place during filming in 2011, as we now know the actors decided to have dwarf rings instead of tattoos.

Another article just released by IGN describes the barrel scene but there is no interview with Richard.

16th October

A new Desolation of Smaug banner has been released from Warner Bros. today showing key characters from the second film in the Hobbit trilogy including Thorin, Fili and Kili. I have added the banner to the gallery - click 'original image' in the bottom right corner and then click on the image to see its full size. The next image in the gallery is a close up of just the three dwarves.

1. There are now 'clean' versions of all the Desolation of Smaug posters in XL size. I've added the picture that includes Thorin to the Hobbit Stills gallery (click 'original image' to see the full size).

2. A very interesting 3 page interview with Jed Brophy who plays Nori in The Hobbit, answering a variety of questions about his career and of course specific mention of working on The Hobbit. There are two references to Richard in the interview, including:

"I was lucky enough to train alongside Richard Armitage a lot during the early part of the shoot and again on location, and he inspired me to train the hardest I ever have for anything. He is so strong mentally and physically and like his character I felt compelled to follow him."

5th October

1. The winners of the RAnet competition have been selected at random using the the random.org generator from 408 entries. Rachel from Australia has won 1st prize: the Hobbit DVD, the magazines and the book. Erica has won 2nd prize: the Entertainment Weekly magazine and TheOneRing.net's Hobbit Collector's Edition. Congratulations to them both! Thank you all 408 for entering - it was a fantastic response - and thanks again to those who generously donated the prizes.

2. Hobbitfilm.it have published pictures from the 2014 Hobbit desk diary which show new pictures of some of the Hobbit characters. The two new pictures of Thorin are now at the end of the Hobbit Stills gallery.

3. Website problems: apologies for the short downtime today which was due to a high server load on my site. This has been caused by 2 factors - spam attacks and hotlinking. I've put some measures in place to work on the spam problem but I've discovered that there are at least 6 bloggers who are directly linking images or media files from my site to theirs, rather than uploading the files directly to their wordpress server. If you are a blogger, website owner, tumblr user, pinterest, etc please could you check that you have not directly linked to images/media files on the site as it will result in this site being taken down by my server hosts as happened today.

Further info as a result from emails received: any image/sound/video file stored on a blog where the full URL starts with http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/ is a hotlink and drains my bandwidth. For those asking, yes I've had hotlink protection on my site via my host's cpanel for years but it seems it wasn't working. I added an extra layer of security last night and today was told about specific code to edit my htaccess file (website owners will know this specifies access control to your site) so I'm working on the problem. If the site goes down again, please be patient as I'll be working on it. Thanks!

4th October

1. Release dates for Into the Storm:according to IMDB, but as yet unconfirmed by Warner Bros., the UK release date for the tornado thriller is 22 August 2014 (coincidentally Richard's birthday). This is also the date listed on the Film Distributors' Association site so 22nd August sounds a likely date for the UK. The release date for Spain is 14th August 2014 as tweeted by @RentrakSpain, an Entertainment reporting site. Thanks to @ForoRArmitage for passing this on. The film will be released in the US on 8th August 2014. I will post news of other worldwide release dates as soon as they are revealed.

2. Last day of the huge giveaway competition: a reminder that the competition closes tonight at midnight UK time. You can win 6 magazines, a Hobbit DVD and a novel. Click here to enter. Please read all the competition rules and terms and conditions before entering. Thank you.

3. Following the clip of Richard introducing the second Hobbit film listed in the news 1st October, there is a similar but higher quality clip posted on this polish film site: film.onet.pl or here on youtube. Thanks to Ania. Fans of Lee Pace and Luke Evans might like to watch this introductory clip on youtube.

4. Click Online have published a second answer from their recent interview with Richard in London, stating what he is currently reading. Most of their questions concerned The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and they don't have permission from the filmmakers to publish this interview yet, hence these teasers (see the first answer in the news 1st October).

5. Richard has been interviewed today in New York and took part in a photoshoot. The image is now unavailable via twitter as the interviewer has protected her twitter account, however the magazine has mentioned the interview here. The interview will appear in NY Moves magazine published in early November.

1st October

1. Click Online have offered a funny teaser from their recent interview with Richard in London by answering a question about whether Richard prefers cats or dogs. Read the answer here. Richard gives the answer via pictures!

The Warner Bros. Czech youtube site has a video of Richard introducing the trailer, unfortunately the aspect ratio is wrong but I'm happy to say that 'tehi' has uploaded a corrected version here. Martin Freeman's funny intro is here.

3. Strike Back on Cinemax Latin America: on Saturday 5th October Cinemax Latin America will show Strike Back series 1 episode 4 Zimbabwe part 2 at 22:30 and episode 5 Afghanistan part 1 at 23:30. The last episode in the series will be shown on Saturday 12th October at 22:30. Thanks to lillianschild.

4. Richard has been voted number 18 in Empire magazine's list of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars, as voted by their readers. They (correctly) identified The Hobbit, North and South, Guy of Gisborne and Richard's voice as reasons he was voted - sounds about right to me!

30th September

1. The next trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaugwill be released online tomorrow at various major sites between 1-1.15pm UK GMT tomorrow, which is 5.00am US PST and 10.00pm Australian EST. Keep an eye on the Warner Bros. channel on youtube and the Apple Trailers site as well as other major movie news sites as this is where trailers have been released in the past. This information from Dark Horizons.

2. Cinemax have published a trailer for Strike Back: Origins which is what they are calling the original first series of Strike Back that aired in the UK in 2010, starring Richard as John Porter. Watch the trailer here. The series premieres on Cinemax on Friday 25th October at 10pm.

28th September

1. Four new pictures of Richard as Thorin Oakenshield are on the Official Hobbit Desolation of Smaug 2014 calendar and have been kindly scanned and sent to us from Ingrid. They are now on page 5 of the Hobbit Stills gallery, or click the thumbnails below.

2. Richard on German and Austrian TV: German channel ZDF Neo will be showing Spooks on Monday 30th September at 23:45. According to the description on the Austrian tele.at site they will be showing series 7 which includes Lucas North of course. Also Captain America: The First Avenger is on SF2 on 28th September at 8.00pm, Pro7 on 6th October at 8.15pm and the ORF1 channel on 7th October at 8.15pm. Thanks to Michaela for all this info.

3. TheOneRing.net have reported that the second trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be released very soon, maybe even next week. Read more here.

26th September

The author of the Clickonlineblog on tumblr has stated that they will be attending a Hobbit press junket on Saturday in London that will include Richard. You can suggest questions for Richard on the blog that they might be able to ask. If you do not have a tumblr account but are on twitter instead, you can send a question via @Clickonline_ using #askthorin as per this tweet.

25th September

1. The Hollywood Reporter have confirmed the title for the found footage tornado film and the release date: Into the Storm will be released 8th August 2014 in the US. Worldwide release dates not yet known. I will now replace all page headings on this site referring to Black Sky to the new title!

1. Richard attended the BAFTA LA TV Tea Party yesterday at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, an event held annually the night before the Emmy Awards to celebrate British influence in Hollywood. This article on Just Jared includes Richard's name in their headline. Pictures can be found in the BAFTA LA Tea Party gallery on this site. The lady in yellow is Lara Pulver, who played Gisborne's sister in Robin Hood. More pictures have been added since first writing this news - thanks to German RA forum for finding pic #11.

Update: pics 14-20 have been added to the gallery with thanks to Cesta and also for larger version of #10.

2. According to Nathan Kress, co-star of Black Sky/Into the Storm, filming wrapped on 19th September and they still haven't decided on the name. A reminder that we have a poll about the name of the film on the left-hand side.

21st September

1. The Hobbit in Russia: the TNT channel will be showing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey today at 8pm and then repeat it on Sunday 22nd at 1pm. Thanks to GiztheGunslinger and Svetlana.

2. Robin Hood in Belgium: series 3 episodes 5 and 6 will be shown next Saturday 28th September starting at 14:25 on Belgian Channel La Deux, and further episodes will be shown on the next few Saturdays (but it's not in the schedule today). Thanks to Nadia.

3. A donation to Childline of £259.18 was made today from referral fees paid to this site from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page of this site to earn referral fees for charity. Further details of how referral fees are accured are here.

4. A huge giveaway competition has been launched today on this site, offering 6 magazines, a Hobbit DVD and a novel. Click here to enter. Please read all the competition rules and terms and conditions before entering. Thank you.

5. Robin Hood in the US: a reminder that the INSP channel will broadcast Robin Hood tomorrow in a marathon showing, starting at 6.00pm ET with episode 1.

6. The Hobbit in Sweden: the C More Hits broadcaster in Sweden is showingThe Hobbit today at 8pm and again on Thursday 26th at the same time. Thanks to Ingela.

17th September

Todd Garner, the producer of Black Sky/Into the Storm has posted several pictures via his twitter account in the last few days including three of Richard. I've added the new additions to the Black Sky Stills gallery - note they are not very clear but these are teaser shots! The cast and crew are currently filming additional footage for the film - see Nathan Kress' tweet here.

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Germany: Sky will be showing this film on Sunday 20th October at 8.15pm in high definition, which they are announcing as an exclusive TV premiere. You can read this news and information about when they are showing the Lord of the Rings trilogy on this financial news website. Thanks to Bee.

2. Robin Hood on BBC Entertainment:here is a schedule of broadcast times for Robin Hood on the BBC Entertainment channel. Check your country's listings for confirmation of the schedule. Thanks to Monika.

3. There is a new poll on the left-hand side referring to the possible name change of the movie Black Sky to Into The Storm (rumours started after this interview with the screenwriter John Swetnam). I thought it might be fun to see what people think of both of these names, so please cast your vote on the left.

Thank you so much for all 2127 votes in the previous poll. The same question was asked in 2010 and the results are here - the main difference is that the top two categories are swapped. There are more visitors to this site these days, but I guess we're all slightly older now!

8th September

Strike Back series 1 in Germany: RTL2 will be showing Strike Back on the 15th and 21st September in the early hours of the morning. Click here for schedule information. Thanks to Nino and Sabine for this info.

5th September

According to HitFix.com, Cinemax in the US will show the first UK series of Strike Back, starring Richard as John Porter, after the current season ends this autumn/fall. Good news for US Cinemax viewers! If Canadians have any information whether this will air on Cinemax in Canada too, please let me know.

Update:Highlighthollywood.com have reported that Strike Back: Origins, as the original UK series will be called, will air on October 25th on Cinemax.

2nd September

1. Robin Hood in the US: the INSP channel will show Robin Hood on September 22 at 6.00pm ET. The trailer on their site shows all 3 seasons so I assume they will start the series from the first episode. Lots of emails about this, thank you all.

2. Another new Spooks behind the scenes picture with thanks to Jonia, posted on her blog, and now uploaded to the Spooks gallery here. Also series9-63 is now larger - click 'original image' to see the full size.

3. Spooks in Australia: thanks to KatharineD for letting us know that Spooks series 9 has just been added to BBC iPlayer in Australia. Series 1-9 are currently available for viewing.

26th August

Cover images of the various Desolation of Smaug companion books have finally been posted on Amazon.co.uk's site and I have added them (with close-ups of Thorin) to the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click a picture to view, then click 'original image' to see the full size. To order via this site and earn referral fees for charity, use the RAnet stores or you can click one of the three Amazon logos on the home page and then order any item from Amazon as usual. Thank you!

25th August

1. Eleven new pictures of Richard have been posted online, sourced by armitage-online.ru, all from photographer Ben Rayner and taken some time last year. One of the pictures accompanied the interview in Nylon Guys magazine, posted on the Interviews page on 2nd January 2013 (scroll down to this date to read the interview). I've uploaded the pictures to the 2012 Promo gallery, and also put the Robert Ascroft pictures into groups (because I couldn't help myself), so you may need to press F5 to refresh your computer screen.

The eleven new pictures start with the 2nd image in the gallery (the first picture is the scan from Nylon Guys magazine). Thanks again to armitage-online.ru.

2. Captain America: The First Avenger in Germany: the Pro 7 MAXX channel will show this film on 3th September at 8.15pm and will repeat it on 4th September at 1.15am. Thanks to Nicole. This showing has been advertised on YouTube (no clips of Richard).

24th August

1. Richard has provided the voiceover for Pure New Zealand's video "100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand". Watch the extended version on YouTube (change the settings to HD).

2. There is a thank you to the fans of the Barclays Premier League 2013 on YouTube, with voiceover towards the end provided by Richard Armitage. Update: This video has been removed due to a controversy with an individual shown in the advert.

3. Thank you for an overwhelming number of birthday messages for Richard. The page is now closed for new messages.

13th August

Thank you once again to Jonia for sourcing new pictures of Lucas North from episode 7, series 9, including some behind the scenes pictures. The series 9 pictures have been renumbered so if you cannot see them correctly you may need to press F5 to refresh the cache on your PC/Mac.

1. North and South in Austria and Germany:Servus TV are showing the four episodes of North and South on 13, 14, 16 and 19 August at 2.00pm and also on 14, 16, 19 and 20 August at 9.10am. Thanks to Elisabeth and Michaela. The Servus TV website had larger versions of two of the N&S promo images so the Promo gallery has been updated. The larger images are NandSPromo-14 and NandSPromo-21. Click 'original image' to see the full size.

2. A donation to Barnardo's of £56.20 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk during May 2013. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Remember that purchases from Amazon.de will also now qualify for referral fees if you use the Amazon.de links on this site. For more information, click here.

3. Richard on Polish TV: Richard is appearing in Moving On, Robin Hood and Strike Back on various Polish television channels in the next few weeks. Click here to see the schedule. Thanks to Ania.

10th August

A reliable source has informed TheOneRing.net that the world premiere for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will take place in Los Angeles. No venue or date confirmed. Read more here.

9th August

A Spanish online retailer has listed a 2014 calendar for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and it contains new promo images including three which contain Thorin. The last image looks like it could be Beorn - the first image released of this character in fact. Click the image below to enlarge. Thanks to @Vec170203 and @ForoRArmitage on twitter.

8th August

The Desolation of Smaug official movie books: books to accompany the second Hobbit movie are available to pre-order on Amazon. Brian Sibley's Desolation of Smaug official movie guide, another chronicles book from Weta and a Visual Companion which is introduced by Richard Armitage. The links below will all raise money for charity as they incorporate the RichardArmitageNet referral code, ensuring Amazon will pay this site referral fees on all orders which I will pay to charity.

The charity DEBRA, an organisation that supports those suffering from the painful skin condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) and their families, have tweeted and posted on their Facebook page about a Butterfly Wish card received today from Richard Armitage. EB is a rare genetic skin condition which causes skin to blister and shear at the slightest touch. The aim of the Butterfly Wish campaign is to help raise awareness for people living with EB. Butterfly wish cards can be purchased for a suggested minimum donation of £1 from one of the 100 DEBRA Charity shops in the UK, you can write something special on your butterfly wish card, which will then be displayed in your local shop, and you will be helping to raise essential funds for people living with this debilitating condition.

Visit their website to find out more: http://www.debra.org.uk/ Thank you to Julie at DEBRA for passing on this information.

4th August

1. The rumour mill keeps spinning with two more articles quoting sources in Los Angeles about casting for the role of Batman, with Richard's name as a likely contender. The British tabloid newspaper, The Daily Star Sunday, quotes a casting source in Los Angeles and The Hollywood Reporter lists Richard along with other names that are cropping up regularly. THR also offers a note of caution:

"One insider says that any talk of casting is premature since the script isn't yet written. But that has not stopped studio insiders from whispering names or preventing agencies from drawing up lists of their best faces."

2. Richard has narrated another episode of the UK documentary Fraud Squad which will air Thursday 8th August at 9pm on ITV1. There have been three episodes of this documentary previously, two in 2011 and one in 2012, all narrated by Richard, details of which are on the Fraud Squad page on this site. For further details about the new episode, visit the ITV press site. United Voices (Richard's voice agent) have mentioned the show on their news page.

2nd August

1. After the set visit described in the news 8th July, a lady called Harriet has published a blog describing a wonderful visit to the Hobbit set and also the premiere of The World's End. She posted pictures of herself with Philippa Boyens, Benedict Cumberbatch and playing piano with Richard! Thank you to her for sharing and to Karima for emailing me. Please credit the original blog if you repost as Harriet owns those pictures, thank you.

Warner Bros. have announced the release date for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey extended edition: 4 November for UK, 5 November for US and 20 November for Australia. The digital download will be available worldwide on 22 October.

The extended edition includes 13 minutes of extra footage and Yahoo Movies UK posted a sneak peek video earlier today of one of those extra scenes: Bilbo and Elrond at Rivendell.

Blu-ray.com has a full list of the appendices on the extended DVD/Bluray, which includes "A Long-Expected Journey: A 14-part chronological history of the filming of An Unexpected Journey", "The Company of Thorin: Explores the characters and backgrounds of the five families of dwarves and the company of actors chosen to play Thorin's company", and filmmaker's commentary by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens.

The image shown below (click to enlarge) shows the cover art for the Bluray extended version and has been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

As soon as the DVD/Bluray becomes available to order, I will post links here with referral codes to Amazon so that commission from your orders is paid to charity.

30th July

For those who enjoy a poll, here's another one: Glamour UK magazine's sexiest men 2013. Vote here. The results will be announced in October.

29th July

1. Last Friday, the ZDF channel in Germany showed Richard's episode of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, which unfortunately I didn't advertise as I didn't know, however a local newspaper, 'Saarbrücker Zeitung', contained an article about Richard providing biographical details with a picture of Lucas North. Click the image below to read. Thanks to Nicole for the scan and Servetus for the English translation.

2. I've added a new Hobbit gallery called Hobbit Miscellaneous to the site, which includes all the pictures published of Richard with members of the Hobbit cast during the two years he has spent filming The Hobbit in New Zealand. This includes pictures from the Rise Up Christchurch telethon event and pictures posted on Twitter and Facebook recently from the last day of Hobbit filming.

3. A donation to Shelter of £276.71 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com for the months March - April 2013. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Remember that purchases from Amazon.de will also now qualify for referral fees if you use the Amazon.de links on this site. For more information, click here.

1. Jed Brophy tweeted a picture of himself and Richard and also Aidan Turner (Kili) and Graham McTavish (Dwalin) a few hours ago. This picture was taken on the 26th July, the evening that filming finished onThe Hobbit, as was the picture posted in yesterday's news.

2. North and South in Scandinavia: this is now available via BBC iPlayer for residents of those countries according to Mette - thanks for the information!

3. The birthday message page 2013 to celebrate Richard's birthday on 22nd August is now on the site. If you would like to leave a message on that page, scroll down and enter a comment (in English please). Last year there were 435 messages and more than half of those were received in the last two days leading up to his birthday. These messages are all screened and published individually by me, so if you could leave a message in plenty of time before his birthday I would very much appreciate it, thank you!

1. "Two more shots ... maybe an hour to go" from Peter Jackson's Facebook page. Spot the scale double Thorin on the chair at the back. It's worth looking at Peter Jackson's timeline on his FB page to see how the last day of Hobbit shooting has progressed.

TVNZ OneNews talks about 'the end of an era for many on the set' after 14 years of filming Tolkien's work. There is a video link on this page under the picture of Thorin.

2. A reminder that Robin Hood series 3 episode 1 is on BBC3 in the UK tonight at 8.15pm.

25th July

1. Peter Jackson has announced on his Facebook page that he will try to blog on Facebook all day today (Friday 26th in New Zealand) as it's the last day of Hobbit shooting. He will post photos and updates whenever he can, although it sounds like it will be a very hectic schedule.

2. Richard has been listed on various online sites speculating who could play Batman in the planned Superman/Batman movie, recently announced at Comic-Con. There are several speculative articles, but here's one with a larger readership: Total Film.

19th July

1. Orakei Korako thermal park visitor attraction have posted a picture of Richard with Andy Serkis, Peter Jackson, Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen on their site. Thanks to @SiriuslyGnF on twitter. Elijah Wood filmed some of his Hobbit scenes in New Zealand in October 2011 so it's possible that is when this picture was taken.

2. Information for Australians: North and South has been added to BBC iPlayer in Australia. Thanks to Katharine for the email.

3. Robin Hood series 3 in the UK: BBC3 will show the first episode of series 3 of Robin Hood next Friday 26th July at 8.15pm. Thanks to Laraine. Series 1 is currently airing every weekday at 7.15am on WATCH.

The speech made by Richard to introduce The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at the Toronto premiere has been uploaded to youtube. The premiere took place on 3rd December 2012 in the Scotiabank theatre and you can see pictures from outside the theatre here in the gallery. Thank you to VeronicaGhazarian for uploading.

2. The Embassy Theatre have added more photos from the Wellington premiere to their Facebook page. Five more have been added to the gallery. Click 'original image' to see the full size. There are 26 in total - press F5 to refresh.

3. Spooks series 8 in Australia: episode 3 will be shown this Wednesday 17th July at 23:30 on ABC. Thanks to Pauline for the info.

4. There is a new poll on the left-hand side if you would like to vote please. The last time I asked this question was in 2010 - see the results here.

14th July

1. The first news video from The World's End premiere has appeared on the 3News website, showing interviews with the stars of the film and also Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Peter Jackson. Richard appears in the video too, chatting to fans.

3. Three more pictures of Richard and other attendees at the premiere are on a blog on the STA Travel site; thanks to @mashaneronova on twitter for finding them. They are now in The World's End premiere gallery. Press F5 to update the gallery if you cannot see all the pictures - there are 17 in total.

"It'd be an IMMENSE shame if this went straight-to-video or was shelved. People gotta see this on the big screen. If you like Twister, you'll love this one. Now, maybe because I'm a fan of Twister, I did feel this film lacked a certain charm that Twister had, but there are SO many things this film did BETTER."

Of course there is no knowing if this review is genuine. There is still no news of a release date for this film.

5. A donation to The Salvation Army of £143.94 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of April 2013. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Further details here.

6. Thank you for your responses to the poll about whether you would use Amazon.de referral links on this site. As a result of the feedback, RichardArmitageNet.com is now an Amazon Affiliate of Amazon.de, so any purchases you make after clicking on the Amazon.de logo above (under the two RA pictures) or purchases from the RAnet Amazon store will earn referral fees, which I will pay to charity. For further information, click here. Thank you for using these Amazon links, it will make a huge difference to the four JustGiving charities that Richard has nominated.

13th July

Richard attended the Wellington premiere of The World's End tonight, along with many cast members from The Hobbit, including The World's End co-star Martin Freeman. The World's End is a film by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who were all in attendance, along with Benedict Cumberbatch who has recently arrived in NZ to complete his filming on he Hobbit. Peter Jackson introduced the film with a speech at the Embassy Theatre, followed by speeches from the director and cast (picture here).

Photos of Richard have been posted on twitter (click the pictures to enlarge):

Peter Jackson has posted two pictures of Martin Freeman, one of which includes Benedict Cumberbatch, to announce that Martin has completed filming on The Hobbit. There are just two weeks of filming left for Richard and the dwarves.

9th July

North and South in the US: the digital/cable channel INSP will be showing N&S from Sunday 14th July 8.00pm ET. Click here for more details and a trailer.

8th July

1. This is a wonderful account of meeting Lee Pace, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage, Peter Jackson and other cast and crew on the Hobbit set in Wellington, courtesy of elvenbutterflies. We wish you well and thank you for sharing!

2. Here's an interview from the US press junket, December 2012, that I don't recall seeing before - must have missed it, but there were rather a lot of interviews during that huge wave of promotion last year. Thanks to rbb for sending me the link. Richard points out the interviewer is completely off-key as they sing Misty Mountains together at 5:32 and again at 13:38.

Update: for those not able to see this video, click here to watch it on youtube (change the settings to HD).

6th July

1. Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence co-starring Richard as Philip Durrant is on tonight in the UK on ITV3 7.00 - 9.00pm. Screencaps from the show are here and there is more information with an episode synopsis on the Miss Marple career page.

2. Two new pictures of Lucas North have been added to the Spooks Promo gallery and one picture (Lucas sitting at his desk) has been replaced with a larger version. The two new pictures are series9-29 and series9-30 from episode 2. Click 'original image' to see the full size of these pictures. Thank you once again to Jonia for sourcing these pictures. The series 9 pictures have been renumbered so if you cannot see the images correctly you may need to press F5 to refresh the cache on your PC/Mac.

1. A short extract from the article in Entertainment Weekly dated 14 December 2012 was not added to the site previously (an oversight on my part) but you can now find it on the Interviews page. Scroll down to 14 December 2012.

2. The picture of the day archive for June 2013 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

29th June

1. Check out Peter Jackson's Facebook page for new updates this week. He posted a picture of himself with Sir Ian McKellen after shooting Gandalf's last scene and today has posted a very funny video of Orlando Bloom on his last day of filming. A few days ago Graham McTavish tweeted that there were 5 weeks of filming left.

2. Staged DVDs are shipping and should have all arrived in the US by now. The first few copies have arrived in the UK and should be delivered to addresses in Europe in the next few days. DVDs travelling further afield are on their way. See Darren Denison's twitter feed for updates. I've added a link to the Career page for more information on Staged and an interview with Mr Denison, or click here to read more.

3. Eight new pictures of Lucas North have been added to the Spooks Promo gallery today and three pictures have been replaced with larger versions, with many thanks to Jonia for sourcing these pictures:

The last two pictures in the Recognise magazine gallery. This photoshoot took place in June 2011 and was going to appear with an article and interview about Richard in Recognise magazine, but unfortunately the magazine went out of business before the interview was published.

Click 'original image' to see the full size of each picture.

24th June

1. Empire magazine visited Stone street studios in Wellington earlier this month to report on filming currently taking place on The Desolation of Smaug and the third Hobbit film There and Back Again. The article is largely concerned with the three main elves from the second and third films, featuring lots of quotes from Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly and Lee Pace. A new picture of the dwarves in barrels is included (click the image below) and there is more information about the extra scenes we are likely to see in the extended DVD version of An Unexpected Journey, due to be released this November (see second scan below).

2. I have created a new poll on this site (see menu on left) to see how many of you would shop at Amazon Germany via a link on this website in order to earn referral fees for charity. The system would work the same as the current links on the home page for Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com; in other words any sales from Amazon made after clicking an Amazon link on this site would earn commission, 100% of which I would pay to charity. I do not yet know if I will arrange a contract with Amazon.de and cannot promise to do so, but the poll will give me an idea of potential interest. Thank you.

2. I've added the RA France website to the links page. Check out other links for sites/forums/other interest relating to Richard's career.

3. The Casualty gallery has been replaced with better quality images from the video that was uploaded a few days ago (see news 14th June).

14th June

1. The episode of Casualty that included Richard was shown on the Really channel in the UK today. I've uploaded all clips of Richard from this episode to youtube. Change the settings to HD for the best quality. Richard only appeared in this single episode, called 'Playing with Fire', which was first broadcast in December 2001. For more information about the episode, see the Casualty career page.

2. Congratulations to Bernadette from Florida for winning the competition to win 3 Richard Armitage DVDs. A Hobbit related giveaway will take place soon.

13th June

1. The competition to win three Richard Armitage DVDs will close at midnight UK time tonight. Click here for more details and how to enter. Pleasenote the different region codes for the DVDs.

2. The Daily Mail describes the latest Hobbit trailer with pictures and briefly mentions Richard, though the article mainly focuses on Orlando Bloom. Thanks to Karin for the link.

3. Warner Bros. have published some high resolution images from The Desolation of Smaug trailer. Click 'home' then 'gallery' to see the pictures. I've added the Thorin picture to the end of the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click 'original image' to see the full size.

11th June

So much to look at in the new The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug trailer on the Hobbit facebook page. Warner Bros. have also posted the trailer on youtube. Screencaps of Thorin from this trailer are here.

10th June

1. The World premiere for the second Hobbit film will not take place in Wellington, NZ - details on stuff.co.nz. There is an unofficial compiliation of all scenes released so far relating to The Desolation of Smaugon youtube, including some scenes from Peter Jackson's sneak peek clip (more information on this in the news 1st April).

3. Three behind-the-scenes pictures of Richard filming The Impressionists have appeared in a tourist brochure showcasing film productions in the Val-d'Oise region of France. Thanks to Estelle for posting the information in the guestbook today. The three pictures have been added to the end of the Impressionists Promo gallery. In the second of the new pictures Richard isn't wearing his Monet wig and that's not Monet's usual attire, but assuming this is during rehearsals then I'm fairly sure that is indeed him standing in front of the seated Charlie Condou.

Update:the final image in the Impressionists Promo gallery is now available in HD. Click 'original image' to see the full size. Thanks again to Estelle.

4. A reminder that the competition to win three Richard Armitage DVDs will close at midnight UK time on Thursday 13th June. Click here for more details and how to enter. Pleasenote the different region codes for the DVDs.

9th June

Official confirmation from The Hobbit Movie Facebook page that the new trailer for The Desolation of Smaug will be unveiled on Tuesday 11th June at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm UK time. Note the new fantastic poster showing Bilbo looking at the front door of Erebor.

Peter Jackson also revealed the poster on his Facebook page. The first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was unveiled on the Apple Trailers site and posted on YouTube by Warner Bros on the same day, so it's worth checking those and the official Facebook pages on 11th June.

3rd June

1. The picture of the day archive for May 2013 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

2. A donation to Childline of £74.76 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of March 2013. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Further details here.

3. A chance encounter with Richard outside Stone Street studios yesterday has resulted in two photographs being posted on this group Hobbit/LOTR page on Facebook (scroll to the end). Thanks to Deanna for sharing.

2nd June

1. Three pictures in the Spooks Promo gallery have been replaced with large HQ versions, with many thanks to Jonia: spooks8-12, spooks8-14 and spooks8-15 are now in HQ. Click 'original image' in the bottom corner to see the full size of each.

2. According to a reliable source, the release date in Japan for the second Hobbit film The Desolation of Smaug has been put back to sometime in March 2014. The film will be released on 11, 12 and 13 December this year for most other countries.

3. In 2001, Richard appeared in one episode of the long running BBC drama Casualty, called Playing with Fire. This episode will be shown on the Really digital channel on Friday 14th June 10.25am - 11.30am. Thanks to Redliverpool for the info. I will upload clips after it airs and better quality screencaps! The current screencaps are here in the gallery.

1st June

1. I've added a 'search' option to the main menu top-left to help you to find videos, interviews, or any other keyword you wish to search for. The news archive will not be included in this search, but it has its own search button at the top-right of the archive window.

The new pictures posted yesterday here and here are now available in HQ thanks to the henneth-annun.ru forum. Click 'original image' to see the full size.

30th May

1. The gallery home page has been updated - press F5 if you cannot see the new images. I've added the following icons: Black Sky, Star Wars and Macbeth (RSC). Pictures from the latter will be posted very soon. The old gallery has been added to the wallpapers page.

2. Spooks series 7 will start on BBC Entertainment Europe on Mondays starting 3rd June and repeated on Tuesdays and the following Sunday. Check the TV schedule.Thanks to Monika.

Update: check your schedule as Spooks series 7 is also on BBC Entertainment in Israel tonight.

3. Popcorn Taxi have (finally) posted a 25 minute video of their Q&A with Richard that took place on 1st May in Sydney! Watch on youtube.

4. Lots of new pictures of Richard at the London and New York Hobbit premieres have been added to the gallery, most of them sourced from Zimbio.com, with thanks to Olya for the link. To see the full size, click 'original image' in the bottom-right corner of each picture. Press F5 to refresh the screen if you cannot see the new pictures.

5. Robin Hood series 3 in Ireland:RTÉ 2 are showing two episodes of Robin Hood from 2.10pm on Saturdays. This week they are showing episodes 9 and 10. Thanks to Elaine for the info.

25th May

1. New poll on the left-hand side for those who have seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Previous poll results about buying the Hobbit DVD are here.

2. Three new Robert Ascroft pictures have been posted on henneth-annun.ru and now appear at the end of the 2012 Promo gallery - images 29-31 in the gallery are new (tagged RobertAscroft-25 to RobertAscroft-27).

Changes to the site

I've removed the UK television listings from the menu on the left (the module that was used to create the listings attracted spam bots and was one of the reasons for the recent website downtime). A new link showing all of Richard's appearances on UK television is under the 'Richard's latest message' link in the middle of the home page.

After almost six years of posting a new picture every day on this site, I'm sorry to announce the picture of the day feature will cease at the end of June. I will post a new picture on the home page on occasion, but I will not be able to take picture requests for specific days from July onwards. Thank you for all your emails in the past and for your enthusiasm and support for the POD, it's very much appreciated!

No other changes are planned. I hope to update the site and the news pages as regularly as I always have done. I remain committed to this website and encouraged by all of you who regularly contribute to sending me news and for your wonderful words of support. Thank you!

Ali

21st May

Two fantastic new wallpapers have been added to the RA wallpapers page with thanks to Alexandra. Click the images to enlarge and save on your desktop. Please see the top of the wallpapers page for terms of usage.

2. Spooks series 8 in the Czech Republic: this series starts tonight on channel Ceska televize (CT1). It will be shown on Mondays between 11 and 12pm (different times each week) and repeated on Thursdays around midnight. Thanks to Iveta.

3. A competition to win three Richard Armitage DVDs is now open on this site - click here for details and how to enter.

4. A donation to Barnardo's of £215.18 was made today, with many thanks to those who used the Amazon links on the home page of this site when shopping. Further details about how to shop via Amazon and raise money for charity here. Note: payments from January and February were processed together to minimise the banking charge - only one charge was made by my bank for dollar to pound conversion for two months worth of payments.

5. Peter Jackson has posted a picture of himself and Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf on set on his facebook page, with news that the last block of Hobbit filming has started and a video blog will follow soon.

19th May

Another Robert Ascroft picture has been posted online today (source) and now added to the 2012 Promo gallery. Thanks to Janine.

1. Update: apologies for the error. This is series 2, otherwise known as 'Strike Back: Project Dawn' in which Richard only appears in the first episode. Details on NRJ12 site.Strike Back in France: Strike Back will be broadcast in France on channel NRJ 12 from 22nd May.

2. Coup de Main have published an account of their reporter's trip to Wellington, which includes new pictures from the Hobbit press conference that took place on 28th November 2012. Ten new pictures showing Richard at this event have been added to the gallery, starting with this one. Thanks to Olya for the email.

3. Strike Back series 2 in Germany: the first episode of series 2 has a brief appearance from Richard as John Porter and is showing on 24 May at 20:15 on Fox. Thanks to Jo.

15th May

Todd Garner, producer of Black Sky has posted a picture on twitter from the film, showing someone who looks a lot like Richard. The caption 'back on track' refers to the recent disruption to post-production as a result of FX company Rhythm and Hues' financial difficulties.

1. Popcorn Taxi have posted an extra interview with Richard that took place before the Q&A in Sydney on 1st May. There are lots of new questions (and answers) in this one. At the bottom of the interview they confirm that the video of the Q&A will be posted soon. Also posted on the Interviews page.

2. Richard is listed in the Best Actor category for the SFX Awards 2013 for his role as Thorin. Vote here or click here to start from the beginning and vote in all categories. Unfortunately they didn't spell his name correctly. Voting closes Tuesday 28 May.

2. Thanks to Endorwitch, I've added 37 candid pictures of Richard at the Sydney Q&A on 1st May to the Sydney Candids gallery. Click 'original image' in the bottom-right corner of each picture to see the full size.

3. Two more pictures added to the Sydney Promo gallery today: this one of Richard and Sophie Lapin of Go Pop and this one of @DanVoss from twitter, mentioned in yesterday's news.

5. Graham McTavish and Ken Stott discuss their characters in The Hobbitin this video and the relationship between the brothers, with a comment from Richard that he'd imagined Dwalin had been Thorin's confidente from a young age.

1. IGN have posted a new video interview with Richard, which took place during last week's Sydney Hobbit DVD promotion. He talks about audience reaction to Thorin, his eagerness to finally see what Smaug looks like and Thorin's development in the next few films. We've heard similar questions before but Richard still manages to give different and interesting answers! Also on youtube.

2. Staged DVD update: Darren Denison has informed me that all purchasers will soon receive an email with an update about when they can expect the DVD. Several unexpected factors have contributed to a delay, including a DVD sleeve printing error that needed to be corrected.

8th May

Richard Armitage appears with Martin Freeman at 3 minutes in this Japanese DVD promo on youtube. A brief comment by Richard followed by Martin talking about the camaraderie amongst the cast of The Hobbit.

7th May

1. Warner Bros Australia have posted their interview with Richard after asking for fans' questions (see request for questions in the news 26th April). The interview covers all sorts of questions such as whose beard he preferred, the decision to move away from the book in a particular scene, who he would invite to a dinner party and a hint at projects he would like to work on in the future.

2. Two more pictures from the Robert Ascroft photoshoot have emerged - see the last two pictures in the 2012 Promo gallery. Click 'original image' to view full size. Thanks to armitage-online.ru.

6th May

Popcorn Taxi have posted a clip from the Q&A with Richard in Sydney on 1st May. Watch it on their Facebook page. More will follow soon.

4th May

1. Two new articles from the Australian press today:

The Music 'Short and Sweet': Richard talks about the 'endurance test' of making these films and drawing parallels with real-world circumstances to give his portrayal realism. He also describes Thorin's journey as a character and how he 'welcomed the opportunity to occasionally toss aside Thorin’s “stillness and stoicism” and wreak some havoc on his enemies'.

2. The last few minutes of the Sydney Q&A have been unofficially posted on youtube - while we wait for the official video, this is a nice taster: click to watch.

3. TheOneRing.net have published a report of the Popcorn Taxi Sydney event, with a full transcript of the questions and answers plus an interview with the host, Oscar Hillerstrom. The video will be out soon so don't read if you don't want to be spoiled, or read the full transcript of the evening here.

4. The picture of the day archive for April 2013 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

5. A donation to Shelter of £103.55 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of February 2013. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Further details here.

3rd May

1. CNET Australia have published an 11m 50s video interview with Richard, which took place during the Sydney Hobbit DVD promotion. Richard gives detailed answers to many questions we've heard before, but there is also a comment about sustainable energy. Now on youtube.

2. SFTV's Go Pop interviewed Richard in Sydney - watch it on youtube (and below). This is a really great interview, lots of fun and full of NEW questions! Includes a hug with Kermit and instructions on how to walk like a dwarf. This edited video has an introduction by Richard at the start (and he appears again at 3m 50s).

1. Another two new promo pictures taken by photographer Robert Ascroft have been added to the end of the 2012 Promo gallery. Click 'original image' to view full size. Thanks to armitage-online.ru.

2. Alice Tynan of The Vine has published the twitter Q&A part of her interview with Richard. I'm delighted to see my question there and what a fantastic answer, thank you Alice!

3. Popcorn Taxi have posted 15 photos from the Sydney Q&A with Richard Armitage - click here to see the photos on their Facebook page.

1st May

1. Richard was interviewed via telephone on Scotty and Nige's Canberra radio show after 7.30am today. A funny interview which consisted of a few Hobbit questions and then a quiz of 10 questions to find out more about Richard. Listen to the interview on their site - scroll down to the first audio clip 'Richard Armitage Grill'. This is only the second part of the interview, full interview links here:

2. The presenter of Channel 9's Mornings show, David Campbell, confirmed yesterday that Richard will be on their show today. Thanks to Kristy. Watch the interview here via MSN video. @merilyn066 and @lady0akenshield are the two ladies at the end of that video clip, as they were invited into the Channel 9 studios to meet Richard. See item #8 below to see their pictures. David Campbell posted a picture of himself and Richard in this tweet and his co-star Wendy Kingston also posted a picture of in this tweet.

3. MovieFix 'Richard Armitage I told Prince William he'd make a good elf in The Hobbit'

4. News.com.au 'It cost $1.6m to get a face like this! Richard Armitage's Thorin make-over for The Hobbit'

5. Graffiti with punctuation have a picture of Richard with their presenter Blake Howard with a download link to an excellent podcast. Well worth a listen!

6. Lots of pictures are emerging from the Q&A event with Richard at the Hayden Orpheum. Click here on my twitter feed and browse through the tweets to see the pictures. You do not have to be registered on twitter to view my twitter feed.According to this post on their facebook page (read the first comment), there will not be a live online stream of the event, but it will be recorded.

8. Candid pictures from the Channel 9 studios and from the Q&A event are here in the gallery with many thanks to Merilyn066 and Lady0akenshield for their kind permission.

30th April

1. Richard was on 2dayFM radio in Australia today. You can listen to the audio clips and see a picture of Dan and Maz with Richard here on their site.

2. Alice Tynan's written interview (mentioned in yesterday's news) is now on TheVine. There is a link at the bottom to page 2. This is the first interview that Richard has tentatively mentioned future projects, nothing definite of course, but bring on the speculation! Some of us asked questions for Richard via Alice's twitter account - she says here that this will follow tomorrow.

3. Many thanks to Ladypolanna for the scan of the MX article below. The cover was posted yesterday by @MXSydney on twitter. Click the images to enlarge.

4. News from News.com.au on twitter: click here with instagram link to picture. I'll post more information on this when I have it.

5. A reminder that Popcorn Taxi are hosting a special event tomorrow, Wednesday 1st May at the Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne, Sydney, Australia: A screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and a live Q&A with Richard Armitage! The event is now sold out, further details are here. According to this post on their facebook page (read the comments), there will not be a live online stream of the event, but it will be recorded.

6. Richard talks about working with Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett in this interview on localtoday.com.au.

2. Alice Tynan interviewed Richard today - see news 30th April for the link. Alice tweeted a picture of herself and Richard, which you can see here.

3. @MXSydney, twitter account for the free mX newspaper for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, have posted two pictures of Richard today: this picture here and from the newspaper here. Click the pictures to enlarge.

28th April

Australia's Foxtel magazine has a double-page spread on The Hobbit with interviews with four members of the cast. Click the image on the left to enlarge. Many thanks to Kate for the scan.

26th April

1. Warner Bros Australia are asking for questions for Richard Armitage when he visits Sydney in the next few days. They will ask him the winning questions and will then post a transcript of the interview on their site. I'll post a link when it appears. This is a separate interview to the special Q&A event in Cremone, details in the news 11th April.

2. The free Belgian newspaper De Zondag included a short interview with Richard and also James Nesbitt and Andy Serkis last Sunday. Many thanks to Sabrina for the scans and also this English translation.

21st April

1. New interview on MSN-Germany from the recent UK press junket. Richard talks about his back injury sustained during filming for Spooks and his character diary for Thorin. There's a German transcript below the interview. Thanks to Carmen for the link.

The Dutch free newspaper Spits, dated 16 April, has published an interview with Richard and also Andy Serkis in time for the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD. Violet has kindly provided a scan and an English translation of the interview with Richard, which you can read here.

The Hobbit UK Facebook page have posted a video showing Richard answering a fan question about getting into the mindset of Thorin Oakenshield. Judging by the clothes, this took place during the UK press junket in December 2012.

15th April

1. @BBCiPlayerAU have tweeted that the first season of Strike Back is now available on BBC iPlayer Australia. The link in their tweet refers to the BBC iPlayer (Global) app, which is a subscription based app for iPhone and iPad. Thanks to Di. They have confirmed this is the series starring Richard Armitage.

2. A donation to The Salvation Army of £79.53 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of January 2013. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Further details here.

14th April

Two new pictures have emerged via the Repro Images tumblr site by photographer Robert Ascroft today. They have been added to the end of the 2012 Promo gallery. Click an image to view, then click 'original image' in the bottom-right corner to see the full size. RobertAscroft-11 was first posted on this site in January from Korean magazine Movieweek (scan here).

13th April

The Vancouver Sun have published an interview on youtube that took place in Toronto on 3rd December. Richard talks about how the Hobbit influenced him to become an actor, he was dreaming in character and that the amount of detail in the costume promoted excellence in all other areas of the production.

11th April

1. Popcorn Taxi are hosting a special event on 1st May at the Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne, NSW: A screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and a live Q&A with Richard Armitage! To book tickets and for further details, click here. According to this post on their facebook page (read the comments), there will not be a live online stream of the event, but it will be recorded.

2. An update regarding the Staged DVD, Darren Denison says everyone who ordered a copy should receive it by the end of April.

3. Magic FM are running a competition to win a copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD. Open to UK residents only, closing date 17 April 2013. The link also includes audio of the interview with Richard by Rick Astley, but you can download it below in the news 7th April.

10th April

An interview with Richard was played on East Midlands Capital FM Breakfast show with Dino and Pete today. There's a funny response to playing 'King of the Dwarves'. Listen here or via their website.

9th April

1. There was a brief clip of Richard speaking on BBC Radio 1 today - click here to listen. I'm afraid there is no new video today, the video referred to previously was the one with Sarah-Jane Crawford from BBC Radio 1Xtra posted in the news 5th April. Yesterday Sarah-Jane posted this short soundbite from Richard about being her 'Hottie of the Week'.

2. Two new pictures have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery, one of which is here on the left. Click to enlarge.

The pictures are from Weta's latest book The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles. Creatures and Characters. Full of pictures and anecdotes from the cast and crew about each type of character in the film, it has a section dedicated to all of the main characters including Thorin.

"I always imagine characters who are defined by their history. If it's not there then I will inevitably construct a detailed biography. For Thorin this was very easy...but I still needed to investigate a more domestic biography; 'What do Thorin and Dwalin "chew the fact about"?' or, 'What was Thorin's relationship with his sister Dis like?' I felt that might inform how Fili and Kili would feature in Thorin's life."

Amy Hubbard, UK Casting Director:

"I know he won't mind me saying that Peter saw potential in Richard that hadn't been fully exploited before...His commitment to the films, pulling out of a sure-fire job (Strike Back) for the chance of appearing in a project that was 90% likely to go into production, but wasn't 100% green lit at the point of casting him, was an inspriation to all of us. And, I believe it was a much needed boost to the filmmakers' morale...Richard really deserves credit for that. He's a hero on screen and in life."

3. A new interview published today from the March 2013 UK press junket on thisisfakediy.co.uk: 'I'm always the slightly dour one who doesn't get a punchline.'

5. North and South in Romania: starting Saturday 13 April at 20:00 on the Film Café channel. Thanks to Betina.

8th April

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD is out in the UK today and is available from Amazon UK—this link incorporates the RAnet referral code to ensure that all purchases raise money for charity (here is the Amazon.com link). For Blu-ray and other versions from Amazon see the RA on DVD page.

You can also rent or buy The Hobbit online via Blinkbox (it's cheaper than the iTunes UK store).

3. Another new interview from the recent UK press junket, perhaps one of the better ones in recent weeks: HeyUGuysBlog have an interesting and indepth discussion with Richard about the character of Thorin, particularly concerning the path that this character will take into the second film. Richard says he's excited to find out more about the scenes still to be filmed when he returns to New Zealand in May.

4. Promo pictures from the recent BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and Magic FM interviews have been added to the Hobbit DVD Promo March 2013 gallery, including this one tweeted today by Radio 2.

4. A pre-recorded interview with Richard will be played on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from 12pm (UK time) on Monday. Thanks to Chi Chi Izundu, Radio 1 entertainment reporter for the tweet. Video will be played on BBC Newsbeat. Information about this interview was originally posted on twitter on 7th March with photos posted on the 8th—see news 7th March and 8th March below. See yesterday's news for details about the additional Radio 2 interview on Monday, which we can now assume is also pre-recorded.

5th April

1. An interview with Richard was played on Radio 1Xtra at 1.30pm today (UK time) but an extended version of that interview has been posted on youtube, which shows the full interview with Richard by Sarah-Jane Crawford recorded on 7th March. Sarah-Jane Crawford tweeted this picture of herself and Richard from the pre-recorded interview.

2. On Monday 8th April, Richard will be on Steve Wright's show on BBC Radio 2 from 2pm. I will try to find out if this is pre-recorded.

3. Four new wallpapers have been added to the site with many thanks to Rossella, who used the new promo images by Robert Ascroft. Click an image to enlarge and save on your desktop.

4. New interview by SFX magazine, which took place when Richard was in London in March. Richard gets confused between mime and meme and declares that he is NEVER wrong. Watch in HD.

4th April

1. I've added some audio clips to the Sounds page today including clips from all four episodes of North and South selected by Luigina and also the theme from Frozen—because it's a favourite of mine. The Audio Player on the right-hand side of the Sounds page works if you have Flash installed, otherwise you can play or download the sound clips from the list on the left.

2. A new interview from Digital Spy has appeared today on youtube from the recent UK press junket. Richard, James and Andy talk about Hobbit film 2.

3rd April

1. Magnavision home video have posted a new written interview with Richard on their facebook page. There are some interesting comments about important moments in The Hobbit and on whether he considers himself a method actor.

1. Glamour magazine January 2013 UK edition is now available to buy in Australia from selected newsagents. It's a Reader's Digest-sized magazine and costs $5.95. Thanks to TEHI for the information. The magazine contains an interview with Richard which was posted on this site in December 2012 and is here in the gallery.

2. Nine members of the Hobbit cast - eight of the dwarves and Sylvester McCoy (Radagast) - attended HobbitCon in Bonn this weekend, and judging by several comments on twitter there were some very nice things said about Richard. Herba has compiled a list on her blog. It's in German but the comments from the cast are in English. Thanks Herba.

3. In this new interview by IGN, which took place when Richard, James and Andy were interviewed in the UK, Richard hints that there may be more filming to do this summer with the dragon, played via performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch. Also on youtube.

1. Today’s picture of the day was posted on Repro Images tumblr page and was taken by Robert Ascroft in New York. I’ve added it to the 2012 Promo gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each picture in the gallery.

2. The iTunes interview mentioned in item #1 in yesterday’s news is now on youtube.

4. An interview with Richard by Steven Samblis, which took place in New York during the December Hobbit promotion, is free to watch via the iTunes store (podcasts). It is also on youtube.

5. The new picture above is from the Glamour magazine January 2013 issue taken by photographer Anders Overgaard. The image comes from Brightbox Productions who created the video from the behind-the-scenes footage from the photoshoot first posted in the news 3rd January.This image has been added to the Glamour magazine gallery. Click to enlarge.

30th March

1. Andy Serkis has interviewed Richard Armitage and James Nesbitt in a special interview for iTunes which is currently available via the German iTunes store, hence there will be German subtitles. You will need to have iTunes installed in order to see this interview. Click here to access all the material including a trailer, high quality and low quality versions of the interview and both HQ and LQ versions of the thirty minute documentary ‘A Hobbit’s Tale’. Thanks to CDoart for the information.

The ‘A Hobbit’s Tale: Part One’ documentary was originally available as an exclusive extra when buying The Hobbit DVD from Best Buy, but as announced below in the news 23rd March (item #4), it is now on youtube without subtitles.

2. Karima has found an interview with Tami Lane in Bradley University’s magazine, the make-up and prosthetics supervisor who was also responsible for applying Richard’s and Graham McTavish’s prosthetics each day. The front cover shows a picture that was first posted in the news 23rd February. Click to page 12 of the magazine to read the interview.

3. Another new Lucas North picture has been added to the gallery – thanks to Maria for this picture of Lucas and Ros. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size and F5 to refresh the screen if the picture is not displaying correctly.

1. An interviewer representing the online children’s game, Bin Weevils, interviewed Richard on 6th March when he was in the UK promoting the Hobbit DVD. The interview is lots of fun, includes a Gandalf impersonation(!) and is here on youtube. They also interviewed James Nesbitt and Andy Serkis, read more here on the Bin Weevils site.

2. A modified version of the live event held with Peter Jackson last Sunday is now available at www.thehobbit.com/sneak/. Unfortunately this is only available to those who have the access code after buying the Blu-ray and it can only be used three times.

3. Another new picture of Lucas North from Spooks series 9 has been sent to me by Joane – thank you! Click here to view and click ‘original image’ in the bottom-right corner to see the full size.

4. A composite picture of Richard made from images of Lucas, Guy and Thorin appears in April 2013′s issue of Virgin Media magazine. The article is entitled ‘Man of the Month’ as he will appear on multiple Virgin cable channels in the UK in April, in episodes of Spooks, Robin Hood and in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Incidentally, The Hobbitfilm also premieres on Sky Movies in the UK from Monday 8th April.

Unfortunately some of the images are small – that is all that’s available from the TV sites at this time.

26th March

Nine new pictures have been added to the UK Hobbit Premiere gallery with many thanks to Maria. Pictures 15-20 and 31-33 are new. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size and press F5 to refresh the screen on a PC/Mac if you cannot see the new pictures.

MSN Movies interviews James Nesbitt and Richard Armitage (from 53 seconds). Richard tells us his favourite quote from the film and what inspires him. Thanks to Carmen for the link. Note: this link will not work on a mobile phone or in some countries – try this link instead (thanks to Cristina for finding this).

4. ‘A Hobbit’s Tale Part One’ DVD featurette from Best Buy is now on youtube.

5. Nine new candid photos of Richard at the Hobbit World Premiere in Wellington have been added to the Hobbit Premieres 2012 gallery with many thanks to kellyduck. The first of the nine new pictures is picture #8 in the gallery. You can see the full size of each picture by clicking ‘original image’. For more photos plus captions please visit kellyduck’s blog.

1. Lots of screencaps from an exclusive behind-the-scenes video “A Hobbit’s Tale: The Journey Begins” have been posted on the Heirs of Durin site. This 30 minute special, only available when you buy the Blu-ray via Best Buy, shows a huge amount of new footage. Visit Heirs of Durin and click each image to enlarge.

2. Entertainment Celebrity Extra interviewed Andy, Richard and James on 6th March in London and asked them how their lives have changed since being cast in The Hobbit and whether they have bought anything expensive with their Hobbit pay cheque. Watch on youtube.

3. Screencaps from the Xbox featurette ‘The Company of Dwarves’ posted in the news 17th March below are in this gallery.

4. Some older promo pictures have been replaced today with extra large high resolution versions, as follows: this and this from the 2005 Promo gallery and all the pictures (except #10) from the 2006 Sunday Times gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each picture.

5. You may have noticed that some retailers are offering different content on the Hobbit DVD and Blu-ray. Well, TheOneRing.net have provided a very useful breakdown – read more here. Warner Bros. confirmed that an extended edition will be released this year in their press release mentioned in the news 13th March. In the email they stated: “The March 19 home entertainment release will be followed by an Extended Edition available just in time for the holidays.” Presumably this means the winter holidays so that it will be released just before the second film.

18th March

1. Greendragon from TheOneRing.net interviewed Richard in London on 6th March and her video is now on youtube via this link on TheOneRing.net’s site. Most of the interview is concerned with taking on the mantle of playing Thorin, but he also states that nothing else is lined up from him yet, after filming finishes on The Hobbit in New Zealand this summer.

3. The last five images in the NYC Promo gallery have been replaced with high resolution images. Click on an image to select it, then click ‘original image’ to see the full size and click again on the picture to zoom in. Thank you to Lilly for these images.

17th March

1. There’s a wonderful behind the scenes look at Thorin, Fili and Kili on youtube, which is an excerpt from a featurette available when buying The Hobbit on Xbox Video. Thanks to Carmen for the email and @TailorMaster on twitter. Screencaps are here.

2. A transcript of the full Radio Leicester interview that was broadcast on 13th March is now here. More details plus a link to listen to the interview is in the news 13th March.

3. The new poll on the left-hand side is asking whether you will buy The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on DVD or Blu-ray. Previoius poll results are here. Thanks for voting!

16th March

1. The latest issue of Total Film magazine (May 2013) have a one-page interview with Richard, discussing some elements of the second Hobbit film (spoiler warning) and also that comment about working with Peter Jackson that we read in the press earlier this week – see news 12th March below, item #4.On the left are screen captures from the iPad version of the magazine. The interview appeared in a scrolling box at the bottom of the page so I’ve captured each question and photoshopped them together to make the 2nd image.

Click to enlarge.

2. Warner Bros. have sent me an ‘infographic’ about the different types of characters in The Hobbit.Click to enlarge and click again to zoom in.

15th March

Warner Bros. have posted a short video ‘thank you’ from Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis and Jimmy Nesbitt on youtube.

1. The full pre-recorded interview with Richard was played on BBC Radio Leicester today after 11am, an extract of which we heard on March 10th. Listen to the full interview here. To download the interview, right-mouse click (Ctrl-click if you’re using a Mac) and choose Save.

2. Warner Bros. press release received today:

Q&A with Peter JacksonAcademy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson will host a live first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the second film in “The Hobbit” Trilogy, on Sunday, March 24 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern/12pm Pacific at www.hobbit.com/sneak.

Just added: The live event will now include a Q&A with Jackson and fans!

Video questions can be submitted beginning March 12 through March 19 on “The Hobbit” Facebook page, or through the Vine mobile app using the hashtag #askPeterJackson.

Fans can also Tweet links to video questions using the hashtag #askPeterJackson.

The live event will be limited to holders of an UltraViolet™ code, available by purchasing “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which arrives on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and 2-disc DVD Special Edition on March 19.

1. North and South on BBC Entertainment: North and South is showing in various countries in the next few days, including Israel and many countries in Europe. Please check the TV schedule for your country on BBC Entertainment’s site. Thanks to Arfan.

2. The programme ‘The King in the Car Park’ about the discovery of Richard III was shown in Canada recently – many apologies to Jane who told me about this and I didn’t put it on the site in time. However, Canadians are still able to watch this online on the CBC.ca site. The documentary is on youtube, as is the follow up documentary ‘The Unseen Story’ but neither of these will play in the UK due to copyright. Thanks to Lilli for the links.

3. Spooks series 7 in the Czech Republic: Spooks 7 will be shown from 18th March on Mondays, different times each week but between 11pm and midnight, channel Ceska televize 1 (CT1) and repeated on Thursdays at midnight. Thanks to Iveta.

4. TV3.ie have reported on an interview in the British movie magazine Total Film with Richard, quoting him about working with Peter Jackson and the opportunity of playing Thorin: “I knew before I started there would never be another film like this for me,” he admitted. “Not just the experience of making the film but the incredible complexity of the character, the transformation of my physicality… It ticks every box I could ever want as an actor. And then working with Peter Jackson, who takes you to a new place in terms of work. It’s probably the most important piece of work I’ll ever do.”

5. Robin Hood in Romania and Hungary: Robin Hood is showing on a cable network Film Cafe in Romania and Hungary. It started Monday 11th March at 1pm and is repeated 1am from Mon-Fri. Thanks to Betina who says this is the second run in recent months, after the first run December-February of all 39 episodes.

11th March

1. YA has kindly shared her experience of attending The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey World Premiere in Wellington, NZ, complete with photos from the red carpet and from TheOneRing.net’s special premiere party. Her pictures of Richard are also in the Hobbit Premieres candid gallery. Comments can be left at the bottom of the page if you wish.

2. I’ve discovered six new pictures today by photographer Robert Ascroft and they have been added to the end of the 2012 Promo gallery – click an image to view, then click ‘original image’ in the corner to see the full size.Image #8 shows the picture as it was published, however after some discussion on twitter we believe the image has been flipped, so image #9 is perhaps the ‘correct’ way round.

3. Jonia has discovered some new extra large promo pictures of Richard Armitage and Hermione Norris from Spooks series 7. See her blog for more info. Images now in the Spooks Promo gallery.

1. An extract of an interview with Richard Armitage was played on Radio Leicester today, to hear his views of the discovery of Richard III and possible plans for a stage or screen version of Richard III’s life. Update: The audio file has been replaced with audio of the full interview played on 13th March. For a transcript of the full interview see the news 17th March.

2. There are eight new video clips of Richard taken over the last few days as he promotes the Hobbit DVD, including a clip of him entering the BBC radio studios in London on the Getty Images UK site. Click here and scroll down to the second row, then click a video to watch. Other clips on that page include footage from the Strike Back premiere, the 2010 BAFTA awards red carpet and the UK Hobbit premiere in London. I’ve heard that some people are having trouble playing these videos and it could be a Quicktime issue – check your version of Quicktime and Internet Explorer, or use another internet browser like Chrome or Firefox.

3. Dean O’Gorman, speaking at the Armageddon Expo convention in Christchurch on 9th March, talked about meeting Richard on the day of his audition and basing Fili’s accent on Richard’s own accent. Youtube video by KiwiCatherineJemma and thanks to Gloria for the email.

1. Richard will appear on BBC Radio Leicester twice in the next few days: at 1.00pm (UK time) on Dave Andrews’ show on Sunday and after 11.00am on Jim Davis’ show on Wednesday 13th March. Announced here and here on twitter. You can listen to BBC Radio Leicester worldwide via this link.

Update: the interviewer, Emily Anderson, has told me on twitter that the full interview will be played on Wednesday’s show with a short preview on Sunday. And we will like what he says about Richard III! See the tweet here.

2. Two more pictures from Richard’s appearances in London yesterday. This one from Chi Chi Izundu (more from her in yesterday’s news item #2) and this picture from ITV1′s Daybreak weather presenter Laura Tobin.

3. Three pictures have been posted on tumblr showing fan encounters with Richard yesterday: one, two and three. Thanks to Guylty for the email.

4. Despite previous news reports below, the code to watch the sneak peek of the second Hobbit movie is NOT just available to those who buy the region 1 Hobbit DVD. Amazon UK will send the code to anyone who pre-orders The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey region 2 Blu-ray before 23rd March. Thanks to Fudge19 who has received the code from Amazon UK. To order, see links in the news 8th February.

5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Blu-ray and DVD can be pre-ordered now from EzyDVD (Australia). It is released on 1st May 2013. Thanks to Michele.

6. The youtube clip I posted yesterday showing Richard on Lorraine’s show has been updated – see item #1 in yesterday’s news. The colour has been corrected as it was too red and also an extra clip appears at the start showing Richard waving to camera.

Richard: “There was never a moment in this film which was designed around making the film have impact, and I don’t think Peter was necessarily interested in [doing that],” Armitage said. “He was interested in the immersive quality of 3D and the 48 frames [per second]. It was more about texture than shock.”

6th March

1. Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis and James Nesbitt answered questions for almost four hours today via @TheHobbitMovie’s twitter feed. There is a picture of them here. To read the entire transcript of the question and answer session, click here.

2. Richard is definitely on tomorrow’s Lorraine show from 8.30am UK time, ITV1 in the UK. She announced it at the end of today’s show. I will upload the interview to the RichardArmitageNet youtube channel later tomorrow.

5th March

@TheHobbitMovie on twitter have announced that Richard Armitage will be answering fan questions via their twitter account tomorrow, time not yet specified. Send your questions to @TheHobbitMovie using the hashtag #AskThorin. You will need to register on twitter to ask questions, but you don’t have to register if you only want to read the questions and answers, simply click here to see the timeline of @TheHobbitMovie. I will post a list of the questions and answers on this site after the event.

1. For those buying the region 1 DVD of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, this article on Collider’s site gives some clarification about how to get the special access code to watch Peter Jackson’s sneak peak of The Desolation of Smaug. Details first given below in the news 6th February. Collider states that: “Access to the live event will be limited to holders of an UltraViolet code available by purchasing “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.”

Links to purchase via Amazon.com are below in the news 27th February, which will raise money for charity, however if you purchase via The Hobbit shop you can get a poster with your DVD. Thanks to Jane for helping me decipher all this!

2. According to Locate TV, Richard will appear on ‘Lorraine’ on ITV1 on Thursday 7th March. I will post video of the interview after it airs. Also here on the Radio Times site.

5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey appears several times in the Jameson Empire Awards 2013 shortlist, including Best Film, Peter Jackson for Best Director, and Martin Freeman for Best Actor. Vote here. Thanks to Kate for the link.

6. As promised, click here for two pictures of Richard in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace – or at least these are the only shots where I am convinced it is him. This is obviously open to interpretation and I’m sure not everyone will agree. In the first picture he is front left, wearing a yellow helmet. In the second picture he is on the left of Natalie Portman.

Richard talks about his role in Star Wars on Hollywood.com and they have posted a picture with an arrow pointing to him, but I don’t actually think that is him hence why it hasn’t appeared above.

Here’s a news item from July 2011 in which I posted a picture relating to Star Wars:

An early picture of Richard has appeared on a Star Wars autograph collecting site – click to view. Now added to the Miscellaneous gallery. This picture was received by the website owner in the year 2000.

1st March

Warner Bros. have announced today that the third film in The Hobbit trilogy, There and Back Again, will be put back from 18th July 2014 to 17th December 2014. Most of the entertainment online media are reporting this, including articles in Empire magazine and the LA Times.

27th February

The Hobbit DVD is now available to pre-order from Amazon.com and will be released on March 19, 2013. The links below will ensure commission is raised which I will pay to charity. Warner Bros. announced in October last year that there will be an extended version of the DVD out later this year.

1. A donation to Shelter of £148.20 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com for the month of November 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Further details here.

2. Eight more jigsaws have been added to the site as requested: click here.

23rd February

1. A new picture of Richard and Oscar nominated make-up artist Tami Lane has appeared on SheWired.com. Click the link at the bottom of the page to go to page 2 to see the picture of Tami and Richard. I think that might also be Richard in the make-up chair at the bottom of page 1. Thanks to Valerie for the link.

A similar picture appeared last month and was posted in the news 11th January.

2. France 4 are currently showing series 3 of Robin Hood on Saturdays. Sorry this is too late for this week, but episodes 5, 6 and 7 will air from 10h 45m next Saturday. Thanks to @KAuthoress on twitter.

3. New poll on the left-hand side to find out how visitors to this site ‘found’ Richard. The last time this poll was run in 2010, these were the results. The previous poll results are here.

22nd February

In Finland, Channel Four (Nelonen) will be showing The Making of The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey (Näin tehtiin Hobitti – Odottamaton matka) on Sunday 24th February at 11.35pm. Thanks to Cristine.

21st February

Here’s a new short interview with Richard from the Japanese press junket. The question half way through is asking ‘When do you feel most relaxed?’ The interview with Martin Freeman is here. Thanks to @_reira02 on twitter.

20th February

1. Information about ordering the short film ‘Staged’ has come from the director Darren Denison today, as follows:

‘STAGED’

To request to purchase a copy of your Collector’s Item of the never-before-seen short film STAGED starring Richard Armitage, directed by Darren Denison and filmed in 1999, please email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
">
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, providing your country and language as well. This is a Limited Release and this opportunity won’t be available for very long. The price with postage included is $22.00 U.S., 18.99 GBP and 21.99 Euros. For all other countries, please inquire for details. For international delivery, the total cost will be around $29.00 (postage included). Once you’ve emailed DEI at the email address above, you will receive a payment request invoice from DEI’s Paypal account. Time of delivery of STAGED (with a brilliant DVD sleeve cover & slim black DVD case, plus extra) is within 2 weeks.

We have a limited supply of Richard Armitage’s earlier work in STAGED and it is prohibited of being put online, so if you would like to add STAGED to your RA DVD collection we would urge you to request a copy as soon as possible. Be one of the few to enjoy this little film!

Spooks in Germany: series 9 will start tonight on ZDF Neo at 11:20pm and each subsequent episode will be shown on Monday nights at the same time. Thanks to Sarah.

15th February

1. Weta Digital have posted this video on youtube to demonstrate some of the extraordinary visual effects used in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Change the quality settings to watch in HD.

2. The interview and pictures from FAULT magazine December 2012 issue are now available in the FAULT magazine gallery. Click ‘original image’ to enlarge and to read the interview with Richard.

3. An international research project is looking for your views about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I’m told the survey will close at the end of March, or possibly sooner if they are inundated with results. Details about the project here:

THE INTERNATIONAL HOBBIT AUDIENCE PROJECT In this survey we are keen to hear people’s thoughts, responses and feelings about The Hobbit following its international release. We’d like to hear from people with all kinds of views – from those who loved the film as well as those who hated it or were critical of some particular aspects of the film’s production. Whatever you thought of The Hobbit, we’d really love to hear from you! You can participate in this survey here: http://flashq.rcc.ryerson.ca/Hobbit/

What is involved: Completing the survey will take around 30 minutes, and involves a combination of sorting and ranking a selection of statements relating to The Hobbit, as well as a more traditional questionnaire with click responses and a few open ended questions where you can tell us what you really think. If you do decide to complete the survey, or want to learn more about the project before deciding, clicking http://flashq.rcc.ryerson.ca/Hobbit/ will take you to the formal consent agreement, which looks rather ominous but provides important details about the project and your rights as a research participant. The most important things to know are that your participation is entirely voluntary, your answers will remain anonymous, and you can say as much or as little as you wish. Please note that as this survey uses Flash it won’t work on Apple iPads, but may work on other tablet devices. A large-screen laptop or desktop computer is ideal.

12th February

Each picture used on the calendar mentioned in yesterday’s news is now available as a desktop wallpaper for your PC/Mac. Follow the wallpaper links for Thorin, Lucas, John Porter and Richard on the menu on the left-hand side and scroll down the page for the latest wallpapers.

The 2013 RichardArmitageNet calendar is now complete – click here. This calendar is for personal use only. Please do not upload anywhere else.

9th February

Richard has been working on Black Sky again today, according to his co-star Nathan Kress who posted this on twitter.

8th February

1. Amazon UK now have the Hobbit DVD available to pre-order and the links below will ensure commission is raised which I will pay to charity. The DVD is released on April 8, 2013. Warner Bros. announced in October last year that there will be an extended version of the DVD out later this year.

2. If you live outside the UK, you can watch The King in the Car Park documentary about the Richard III dig here on youtube. Thanks to @littlechick on twitter for the heads-up.

3. New 2012 Promo gallery added to the site today, which includes pictures posted in the news below over the last few weeks. The last image was posted on tumblr today and was taken by Robert Ascroft in NYC (thanks to Seb for finding this). Another picture from that shoot was first posted in the news 2nd January. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each picture in the gallery.

7th February

1. Philippa Langley appeared on Radio Leicester this afternoon and talked about her Richard III project. She said that Richard Armitage is currently pitching the movie script in Los Angeles and a major distributor is on board. I captured the last part of the interview (12 minutes) and you can listen here. (Updated link to mp3 file).

2. This print version of the article about fan support of Richard Armitage’s Richard III project mentioned below on 24th Januaryhas been forwarded to me with thanks to CDoart.

Click the image to enlarge.

3. Three more Thorin signatures have been added to the signatures page with thanks to Abigail – numbers 4, 5 and 6 are new.

Update: it seems this date was premature. Todd Garner, the producer of Black Skyhas replied on twitter stating there is no release date yet.

2. A donation to The Salvation Army of £180.77 was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of November 2012 and from Amazon.com for October 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity. Further details here.

3. With regard to questions I have received about the BAFTA Awards which take place in London on Sunday, Richard’s name is not on the list of announced attendees and we know from Radio Leicester that he is currently in Los Angeles, so it is very unlikely that he will attend the BAFTA ceremony this year.

4. Peter Jackson will be showing a ‘sneak peek’ of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ on 24th March, but only for those who have the special online access code available when you buy the Hobbit DVD or Bluray. The region 1 version (US) will be released on 19th March and today @HobbitMoviesUK have announced that the region 2 DVD and Bluray will be released on 8th April. It seems that only region 1 DVD owners will be able to see the ‘sneak peek’!

There will be a documentary about the archaeological dig ‘Richard III: The King in the Car Park’ tonight at 9.00pm on Channel 4 in the UK. Channel 4 programmes can be watched again via their 4oD service, but I cannot confirm yet if this works overseas.

Richard Armitage has been in the news relating to the discovery of Richard III’s remaims in the news 3rd February, 2nd February, 24th January and Richard himself mentioned the dig in an interview with the Leicester Mercury (news 17th December item #7).

3rd February

1. Richard will be live on BBC Radio Leicester after 5pm UK time today to talk about Richard III. You can listen live here (BBC radio can usually be listened to overseas without any difficulty from BBC pages). This tweet from BBC Leicester announced the news and states that Richard will be calling from LA. The interview will be recorded and uploaded to this site after broadcast.

The radio presenter, Dave Andrews, who was due to interview Richard today on Radio Leicester, read out Richard’s email in which he apologised for not being able to call the studio. This part of the broadcast has been uploaded to youtube, with thanks to Servetus.

2. New artwork added to the site today, with thanks to Angelfish69, Abigail and Gratiana:

2. The February 2013 issue of Empire magazine has an article about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaugand they have printed the first official picture released from the film featuring Bilbo in Smaug’s lair.

There’s a quote from Richard about the battle in the third film which is yet to be shot. “It’s this big thing looming over us. I’m predicting about ten weeks (for the shoot)because it’s an extensive battle and each character is going to have their ‘hero’ moment on the battlefield.”

3. The recent news about Richard III’s excavation has lead to another news article about Richard Armitage’s connection at HeraldScotland.com and Philippa Langley’s hope that her screenplay will one day be filmed. Note that the project is still looking for funding and there is a comment from Richard’s agent at the end of the article.

1st February

1. The cover for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Blu-ray has been published today on Bluray.com.

These links to pre-order the region 1 format on DVD and Blu-ray will earn commission for charity. Although stated in the news on 29th January that Amazon.com have announced the release date as 19th March 2013, I notice this date has now been removed from their Hobbit DVD pages.

Click the picture on the left to enlarge.

2. Darren Denison has been in touch to say that the poster for the short film Staged has been added to the Staged IMDB page. Click the image on the IMDB page to enlarge.

3. Seven new images have been added to the Hobbit UK Premiere gallery, with thanks to Cesta. Images 19-25 are all new. Click ‘original image’ when viewing each picture to see the full size. Press F5 to refresh your screen if the gallery doesn’t display correctly.

29th January

According to Amazon.com The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released in region 1 format on DVD and Blu-ray on 19th March 2013. Thanks to Lynn.

28th January

FAULT magazine update: I’ve been informed today that all pre-ordered issues have now been dispatched and should be delivered to UK residents in the next few days and overseas by DHL Global Mail hopefully by the end of the week.

26th January

There is a new poll in the menu on the left-hand side asking which was your favourite Hobbit premiere outfit. If anyone knows the designer of the Toronto premiere outfit please let me know! Here are links to pictures of each outfit: Wellington, Tokyo, Toronto, New York, London. Results from the previous poll are here.

24th January

1. One of the administrators of the KingRichardArmitage website has let me know that she has been interviewed by the Leicester Mercury. She talks about her website’s support of Richard’s interest in bringing the story of Richard III to the screen, as the Mercury puts it…”Richard Armitage, who most recently played dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, was named after the last Plantagenet king, and has spoken about his story in many publications – including the Leicester Mercury’s More magazine last month.” The interview in More magazine is featured below in the news 17th December.

2. Buzzine.com’s interview with Richard and cast members during the US press junket is here on youtube. Richard appears at 1m 15s. The full written article from these interviews appears here on Buzzine.com. Thanks to Mar and Crystal for the emails about this one.

21st January

1. Thorin and co. have been parodied on Saturday Night Live in the States and it’s pretty funny! Most links online won’t play outside the US but I’ve found this link on youtube – no idea why it’s at a 45 degree angle though.

2. Another video interview from the UK press junket has emerged – thanks to Marisa for finding this. Richard appears at 6 minutes.

3. This candids gallery from the Hobbit premieres contains images from the US premiere by Cambear and from the UK premiere by Sootyotters – thank you ladies. Please email me (Ali) at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
if you would like to submit your photos from any of the Hobbit premieres to this website. Thanks!

18th January

1. US residents may like to download the Cinemax app for iPhone or iPad, which is free, as I’m told that the two 60 second interviews with Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman (posted in the news 18th December) can be viewed as one continuous piece and there is dialogue between each of the interviews. Thanks to Anna.

2. There is a clip of Nathan Kress on youtube, Richard’s co-star in Black Sky, talking about working with Richard. Thanks to Steph.

3. The LA Times Hero Complex site has three fascinating videos about Weta’s visual effects work on The Hobbit. The third feature about the animated character Azog includes lots of clips of Thorin.

4. A translation of the Korean Movieweek magazine interview posted below on 5th January is available here. Thank you to Hyunjin for the translation.

5. New clips of Richard and the cast at the London premiere of The Hobbit are here on youtube. Richard appears twice in this video. Thanks to Marisa.

6. Richard has been voted number 5 in the top 10 list of sexiest male actors according to Total Film.

16th January

1. Todd Garner posted another still from Black Sky on twitter yesterday, this time showing Richard and Nathan Kress who plays Richard’s son in the film. Here is his tweet or click the picture on the left to enlarge. Click the picture on the left to enlarge.

2. This Hobbit special on youtube first shown in Turkey has no new clips but may be of interest to Turkish speakers visiting the site. Thanks to Marisa.

3. Find out what Richard, Peter Jackson and other cast members are looking forward to seeing in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaugin this video from Total Film. Thanks to Dena.

15th January

1. I’ve added copies of the print issue of Glamour magazine, January 2013 issue to the Glamour magazine gallery (first three slides). Click an image then click ‘original image’ in the bottom-right corner to read. This was first posted in the news 7th December.

2. The producer of Black Sky, Todd Garner, posted this picture on twitter today and this picture of the film’s logo. Click the picture on the left to enlarge.

3. New interviews and a Hobbit special from Channel Ten, Australia:

this 20 minute Hobbit special shows interviews with most of the cast and Peter Jackson. The interviews with Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage took place during the Wellington press junket the day before the world premiere of The Hobbit.

this video on youtube is a shorter report that was posted online in November, showing clips from the previous video’s interviews.

1. The interview shown below appeared in the “On Sunday” supplement of the Brisbane Sunday Mail on 16 December 2012. The quotes come from various press junkets that have taken place in the last few months. Thanks to Leanne for the scan. Click the images to enlarge. I’ve cropped the picture so you can view it separately.

2. MTV.ca’s interview has been posted by Danielsredluna on youtube, which took place while Richard was in Toronto on 3rd December. A picture of this interview is already in the gallery (I was wondering when that interview would turn up!).

On living with the character of Thorin all day: “I found that I needed to stay with the character pretty much all day and concentrate pretty hard, because you never really knew when you’re going to be called to the set and to be asked to do something, because Peter just works quite organically and he likes to keep cameras rolling. The level of stamina was the highest I’ve ever worked at.”

And on making the jump to international star: “It’s so interesting because going to the cities and seeing the fans, that’s the best part of it for me because you make this film, obviously you don’t make it for yourself, and when you walk through the red carpet in Tokyo and you see all these people dressed up as the characters and they’re so excited about it. That to me is what it’s all about.”

13th January

1. Another interview from the UK press junket has surfaced with a Danish interviewer from Kino.dk. When asked whether Sean Bean or Viggo Mortensen’s performances in Lord of the Rings influenced him: “No I didn’t really look to anything other than the book for inspiration, I mean I’m always inspired by other actors and I’m inspired by both Sean and Viggo for their work in Lord of the Rings. Their work has so much impact, it’s not useful actually to create a new character from pieces of other actor’s work, but really Tolkien gives so much it was actually impossible to put anything in there because I still couldn’t get enough out of his literary work…” Thanks to Marianne.

3. Darren Denison has added to his interview on this site with his recollection of the audition for ‘Staged’, filmed in 1999. See news 8th January for the trailer of ‘Staged’.

11th January

1. A fantastic picture of Richard and Tami Lane has appeared on pjstar.com following her Oscar nomination for her work with makeup in The Hobbit. Photo is courtesy of Linda Lane. Click the picture to enlarge.This picture has been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

2. A video interview from Film.it with Richard at the UK press junket is here on youtube. In answering what was the craziest thing he did to prepare for the role…”I think the craziest thing I used to do is drive my car around Wellington with a Maori chant playing on the radio, and I used to scream very loudly so that I could get a kind of gravelly sound going in my voice, and the reason I used to do it in the car was because I didn’t want to disturb the neighbours.” Thanks to Marisa and also for this Hobbit Special by Sky Cinema Italy on youtube which is entirely in Italian. It’s 15 minutes long and there are lots of behind the scenes clips and interviews.

3. Twenty minutes of behind the scenes clips of The Hobbit without commentary are on Collider’s site. First clip of Richard is at 5m 50s. Thanks to CDoart.

Thanks also to Suvi on Facebook for pointing out that the same clips are here on Trailer Addict but they are much better quality.

5. Darren Denison has published two colour stills from his short film ‘Staged’ starring Richard from 1999. Click the images below to enlarge.

These are also on his Facebook page – please click ‘like’ and we might get to see the whole film if there is enough interest shown.

6. Excerpts of Richard at the UK press conference were posted in the news 16 December, but these clips are incorporated into a larger clip from the conference here on youtube courtesy of RedCarpetNewsTV. The full playlist of press conference clips is here.

10th January

1. Once again Richard’s performance in The Hobbit has been acclaimed and this article by John Vincent on Airlock Alpha states that this is Richard’s film, as well as giving Peter Jackson’s return to Middle-earth a positive review generally: “in the end it’s Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield who steals the film. Here again Jackson knows where to butter his bread — Armitage is simply wonderful as the grim dwarven king trying to do the impossible. Armitage shoulders most of the load — in the end it’s his movie — and that’s a good thing.”

2. I’ve been asked to pass on that there is a strong possibility that the short film ‘Staged’ will be available to watch in its entirety and after a decision has been made I will let you all know here. Thanks to Darren Denison.

3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has received three Oscar nominations for MakeUp and Hairstyling, Production Design and Visual Effects. The awards will be presented on Sunday 24th February.

9th January

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been nominated for three British Academy Film Awards for Sound, Special Visual Effects and Make Up and Hair. The 2013 BAFTA Awards will be presented on Sunday 10th February at London’s Royal Opera House.

On the Denison Entertainment production site, the short film is described as follows: “A couple is at war with one another during dress rehearsal while attempting to make a come back to the stage, starring Richard Armitage and Jennifer Taylor Lawrence – Completed Short Film.”

2. Darren Denison has kindly answered some questions to tell us more about the production of ‘Staged’ – read the interview here.

7th January

Pathé have launched a competition on Facebook to win a signed poster of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The poster is signed by Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens. Thanks to Ellen, who tells me the competition ends on 11th January. I’m afraid I don’t know if this competition is open to anyone or just Netherlands residents.

Marisa has translated Richard’s comment on being impressed by the character of Thorin as described in the script: “I’ve always felt that the first impression when I read a script is extremely important, so I read it all at once before taking down some notes, because these impressions are only experienced at that exact moment.”

2. This clip of the Hobbit cast interviewed on Japanese Mezamashi-TV shows Richard at 5 minutes. He is asked ‘Did Peter Jackson ask you to perform any fighting scenes you thought impossible?’ and replies ‘Every day!’

3. This article on sankei.jp.msn shows a new photo of Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman. I’m told this article was not easy to translate into English as the original translation into Japanese was not great, but many thanks to the anonymous source for her help. Martin says of Richard “he is very quiet but very determined, with an inner strength but modest, and is very easy to work with.” Richard says “Thorin is not too willing to involve the dwarves in this quest, but on the other hand he knows he has to. He is well aware that some of the dwarves are not necessarily great fighters and has many other doubts about them. I therefore tried to make Thorin see through their personalities/characters.”

4. The article shown on the left appeared in the Korean magazine Movieweek, no. 559 – scan courtesy of Anna. Click to enlarge. Richard talks about the Hobbit but I am told there is no new information in the interview. The interviewer says Richard is very tall, though he plays a dwarf prince, and when Richard met Ian he had chills down his spine. He also talks about why he thinks Peter Jackson cast him as Thorin. The interviewer says he has crystal blue eyes and a baritone voice.

4th January

1. The Glamour magazine video mentioned yesterday is also here on youtube.

2. Anna Wendzikowska from the Polish breakfast TV show, Dzien Dobry TVN, interviewed Richard during the New York press junket in December. You can watch it here – 2nd video on the page. The interview was broadcast on 27 December 2012 and is dubbed in Polish. It’s not easy to hear the English under the dubbing so non-Polish speakers can listen to the video and read my transcript here – hopefully not too many mistakes! Thanks to Ania.

3. New artwork added to the site today, with thanks to Jessie and Rossella.

6. Bravo magazine, a German magazine for pre-teens and teenagers, have published an interview with Richard in their issue dated 2nd January. Click the image on the left to read it. Many thanks to Jessie for the scan and also to Servetus for producing this English translation.Update: both pages of the scan and the translation has been updated.

3rd January

1. Glamour magazine UK have posted the video interview with Richard that was previously only available on the iPad version of the magazine. See news 7th December below for the print interview that appeared in the January 2013 issue, a transcription of the video and screencaps from the video.

2. The entire video from the Apple Store Q&A with the Hobbit cast, which took place on 10th December is now available on channels.com. A large picture of the cast is here and has been added to the Apple Store gallery. Thanks to Karima. Update: if this video doesn’t play correctly (as it doesn’t for me), click the ‘download video’ button under the window. On my PC this opens a new browser window and the video plays perfectly.

Update 5th January: this full Hobbit Q&A Apple Store video is now on youtube.

3. Tribute Entertainment are running a competition to win a trip for two to New Zealand plus ten nights at a hotel. They tell me the whole package is worth approximately $11,000 CDN! To enter, click here.

The contest is only open to Canadian residents and the last day to enter is February 10, 2013.

2nd January

1. The Hobbit special shown on the Warner channel in Brazil recently (mentioned in the news 23 December below) is now on youtube. The presenter, Cindy Taylor, speaks Spanish and English to the cast and there are Portuguese subtitles for the Brazilian viewers of this show. The video is not the best quality but you can see some behind the scenes clips of the cast that haven’t been shown before. Richard talks about playing Thorin at 3m 34s and 5m 25s. Thanks to Thais.

There are four more pictures on this Japanese news site, which I haven’t added to the gallery as they are quite small and overexposed but you may wish to have a look. The interview offers nothing new, but the interviewer has finished the article by commenting that both MF and RA were ‘true British gentlemen’ in their attitudes, and that while MF was very talkative, RA was in contrast very quiet, choosing words carefully, reflecting exactly the images of Bilbo and Thorin.

3. This picture was taken by Robert Ascroft in New York (see news 23 November below). The picture appeared originally in Accion Cine magazine, but this version is uncropped and higher quality. Click to enlarge.

3. The January issue of Nylon Guys magazine includes a new interview, which took place recently in New York, and a new picture. The magazine can be bought online via Zinio.Thanks to Valerie for the scans and this Facebook page for the larger picture on the left.

The first image shows how the article appears in the magazine. Click the second image to read the interview.

1. Sad news that AudioGo Ltd have gone into administration. They were the ONLY seller of the fantastic Lords of the North audiobook and although copies do appear on eBay occasionally, they will probably be second-hand copies. According to this news Audible.co.uk have bought the rights to many of AudioGo's titles - let's hope they had the sense to buy Lords of the North!

2. A scan of the MaxMovie December 2013 interview, mentioned in the news 26th November below, has been sent to me from Veloce, together with an English translation. This interview is very similar to the Cinema Fanpage (Italian magazine) posted in the news on 23rd November - press junket perhaps or the magazines are sharing interviews. Click the image below to enlarge. Thank you very much Veloce!

3. A donation of £251.87 has been made to the British Red Cross Typhoon Haiyan Appeal today from referral fees paid to this site from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Amazon.de. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page of this site to earn referral fees for charity. Further details of how referral fees are accured are here.

1. New photos from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug have been released: Digital Spy, Empire and Sky (thanks to TheOneRing.net for the links).

2. Richard will be attending an event at Waterstone's book shop in Piccadilly, London on Friday 6th December, however the event sold out within a couple of hours of being announced this morning. There were only 100 tickets, but a few lucky fans have already tweeted that they will be attending - have fun ladies!

3. The photographer Leslie Hassler who took the photos that appeared in NY Moves magazine has posted images from the magazine spread on her Facebook page. Click to enlarge and read. This article first appeared in the news 16 November below.

1. Klatsch-Tratsch has announced that Richard Armitage will be attending the European premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on 9th December 2013 in Berlin, along with Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch!

2. Some new pictures of Richard have been posted in the Korean MaxMovie magazine, December 2013 issue. Scans have been posted on tumblr as follows:

1. North and South in Italy: a reminder that the LaEffe channel will show North and South for the first time on Italian television tonight at 22:00h. Click the link to see when the episode is repeated.

2. North and South in Austria and Germany:Servus TV are showing the four episodes of North and South again starting on Friday 29 November at 12:50h. Thanks to Michaela.

1. Greendragon of TheOneRing.net has interviewed Richard before in Toronto and in London, but she got another chance last week and part 1 of her interview is here. We are still waiting for more of this interview to be released.

2. Another interview clip with Andrew Lincoln and Richard aired after Strike Back: Origins aired on Cinemax last night. Thanks RACentral: watch the clip on YouTube.

3. An Italian online film site, Cinema Fanpage, has interviewed Richard about The Desolation of Smaug and Christina and Lucia have kindly provided an English translation here. Richard states that his working relationship with Peter Jackson developed this year during pick ups:

"I think the trust between us grew stronger. There has always been trust, but I think it is more evident when you shoot with someone a second time. He worked even more meticulously. We found shortcuts to many things because I was able to perfectly understand what he wanted without him needing to say it."

1. Warner Bros. UK Trailers have posted several videos from the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on YouTube. There are of course lots more featurettes on the Extended DVD or Bluray. Please use the Amazon links on the home page if you wish to buy it via Amazon, as this will earn commission which I will pay to one of Richard's four charities.

2. I have had a request to donate one or more of the latest Amazon payments to a charity supporting the recent Philippines typhoon disaster, which I think is an excellent idea - I thought the British Red Cross. Please leave a comment on the home page if you have an opinion about this, it's your generous use of the links on my site that will fund this and payments to other charities.

3. The poster of Thorin was chosen overwhelmingly as the winner of Warner Bros. France's competition and will feature in the poster campaign around the streets of Paris. If you see any posters around, I'd love to see some pictures and will post them here - please email me. Read more from Allocine. Thanks to Nadia.

4. Richard will be attending the world premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with many other cast members on Monday 2nd December, as confirmed by Middle Earth News.

The photo agency Getty Images have posted some new pictures of Richard taken by photographer Leslie Hassler in New York on 4th October 2013. Several pictures from this photoshoot have appeared in the online interview by NY Moves magazine (click the image arrow top right to see more pictures and scroll down to read the interview - it's a bit different!).

There are details in the news below (4th October) regarding @NYMoves tweets about interviewing Richard. The image of Richard behind the scenes in this photoshoot was posted on twitter and subsequently in my gallery, but the interviewer decide to protect her account so the image is no longer available, or on this site.

The changes to my gallery are mentioned in my reply to lillianschild on 15th November in the home page comments on this site. Please read for more info and also the link to RAFrenzy's blog which explains the issue much more eloquently than I can. Although I cannot reply to all emails right now, comments left on this site are quick and easy to reply to and ensure that similar enquiries are answered simultaneously. Thank you for your support, I really do appreciate it.

It was announced today that Richard Armitage and Luke Evans, who plays Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will attend the Madrid premiere of the film on 11 December 2013. They will also attend an award ceremony on 12 December in the city. More information (in Spanish) here. Watch the event online from 1900h that day on Los40.com.

Esquire UK December 2013 issue (note: choice of two covers featuring either Joachim Phoenix or Scarlett Johansson): http://www.newsstand.co.uk/ email
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with queries.

Empire December 2013 with Thorin on the cover (digital version): via the Zinio app or Google Play store.

If there are other retail outlets selling these magazines online, please leave a comment on the home page and I will add to this list.

2. As mentioned in yesterday's news there is a new Hobbit scrolling banner. I've added this to the Hobbit Stills gallery, with thanks to Bccmee. Click 'original image' to see the full size - it's worth seeing! Also the next picture in the gallery is a close up of Thorin from this banner.

3. The latest issue of the French magazine L'Ecran Fantastique has an article about Into the Storm with a picture of Richard (seen before - see the Into the Storm gallery).

Click the thumbnail below. Thank you to Joane.

English translation by me (apologies for any errors):

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

A tornados found footage version.

Produced by New Line and Warner, the thriller Black Sky from Steven Quale, a mockumentary of high-school pupils caught in a trap of a terrible hurricane has just had a title change, having been launched under the name Category 6 then Tornado, it is now (definitely?) called Into the Storm. It will be released on August 8, 2014 in the USA. Richard Armitage portrays a widowed father trying to save his son following a series of tornadoes in the space of a single day, ravaging the city of Silverton. The entire city is at the mercy of the deadly cyclones, so that even stormhunters foretell that the worst is yet to come ... told through the eyes of the thrill seekers and courageous townspeople, the film is supposed to jump straight into the eye of the storm.

4. Exclusive content via Denny's from Warner Bros - Beorn's House on YouTube - featuring clips of all the dwarves and the actor who plays Beorn, Mikael Persbrandt. Spoilers about the character of Beorn and shots of the set. Some of these clips were previously seen in Peter Jackson's video production diaries.

5. Another interview clip with Richard Armitage and Andrew Lincoln shown on US TV after Strike Back: Origins was shown on Friday night. Thanks to RACentral for uploading to YouTube.

A scrolling banner for The Desolation of Smaug has been posted on the Entertainment Weekly site. I will add this to the gallery soon. EW posted a similar banner for An Unexpected Journey on 9th July 2012. Here is the 2012 news archive: scroll down to the 9th July to see it.

1. Esquire UK's December 2013 issue features several photos of Richard looking very Bond-esque and a short interview in which he says he's looking for a part in US television: "They ask you to commit to six years on a US show, though. I would have to be fascinated by the subject matter and really want to play a part for all that time."

UPDATE Clarification on copyright: I have been informed that posting images on this site from scans of the magazine article is acceptable. Posting photographer's images from photoshoots is not acceptable unless the pictures have been donated to the site from the copyright owner.

2. Two sets of new Hobbit posters appeared on the 'net last night, some really fantastic artwork in this bunch:

six new posters for the French release of The Desolation of Smaug on 11 December 2013 - click here for a larger Thorin picture

1. After the Hobbit fan event, Warner Bros presented a 3 minute 'sneak peak' of new footage from The Desolation of Smaug, which is currently showing at the start of the live-streaming on the home page. You can also watch it here on YouTube.

2. Here are two videos showing Richard Armitage and Orlando Bloom interviewed by journalists after the Hobbit fan event last night: video 1 and video 2. And here are several pictures of the pair on the JustJared site.

1. I'm pleased to announce that you can watch the live-streaming Hobbit fan event from this website tonight at 10pm (UK), 2pm (US PT), 5pm (US ET). The live-streaming window is on the home page. Note there is a link underneath to watch in a bigger window if you prefer.

2. Another new poster sponsored by the American Library Association and spotted by Obscura in her local public library. Thanks to Servetus for passing this on.

1. Warner Bros UK have just posted a new video on YouTube, in which Richard announces that tickets for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug are now available (this is true for the UK but not all countries). I can verify this as I've just bought mine! Click here to find tickets at your preferred cinema.

2. Richard was mistaken for the US politician on a Korean news site today - this would not normally qualify for inclusion on this news page, but it's so funny I had to mention it. Thank you to @sekert1 for tweeting this to me and attaching the photo as proof. Gone are the days when references to the politican would appear whenever you google RA's name.

1. Fmovie magazine (Singapore) spoke to Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom and Lee Pace in New York earlier this year and their November 2013 issue has plenty of pages covering those interviews, with pictures and a report from the NY press event. Click the thumbnails below to read all the pages that contain quotes from Richard. As with Empire magazine yesterday, I've added the pictures to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

2. New poster showing Thorin, Fili and Kili added to the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click 'original image' to see full size.